Twisting the Tale
by letgolaughing
Summary: Total AU where Henry falls through a portal and stumbles upon our beloved evil queen. Eventual Evil Charming romance ;)
1. Chapter 1

**New story! Woot woot! Have lots of super fun and funny things planned for this one! I've been wanting to post it for foreeeeever but made myself finish an old story before I did. Enjoy! Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Suggestions and questions are always welcome too :) David will be coming in to this story as well in a few chapters. I just have to get everything set up for that :)**

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He was falling and spinning and panicking. He hadn't meant to drop the bean. It fell from his fingers and he leapt forward to try and catch it. _No not a portal, don't open a portal, no, no, no!_ Unfortunately when thinking of a portal, a portal opens and having stumbled in the act of trying to catch it he found himself falling right inside.

"Henry!" Regina screamed in terror and sprinted toward him after rounding the corner and seeing him fall in to the unmistakeable green swirl of a portal.

"Mom!" He yelled back but it was too late. He was terrified and he wanted his mother.

With a rough thud he hit the ground only under his hands he didn't feel the concrete of the sidewalk. Instead he felt soil. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his racing heart. His eyes were closed as he shook his head in denial. He was fine. It was a trick of the mind, a dream even. Building courage as strength, he opened his eyes to see what the sound of approaching horses was going to bring him.

Shining jet black horses galloped up the road toward him, men in black armour sat atop their backs and behind the two riders was a team of four black horses pulling an extravagant black carriage.

Quickly he pushed himself to his feet but he didn't have time to run, nor did he really want to just yet. The two armoured men on their black horses stopped and maneuvered around him so that he could not escape and while his heart was racing and his breathing was unsteady with fear he kept looking hopefully over to the black carriage.

The door opened and his eyes were glued to the foot that stepped out from behind the door and on to the step. His heart all but stopped and tears burned in his eyes when she stepped out from behind the door and began walking toward him with her head held high. She was different, of course she was, he wasn't surprised. But she was there and he was overjoyed. Her hair was so much longer, her makeup so much bolder, her presence so much colder, her eyes so much harder, but she was still there with her commanding and powerful demeanour that no one could best.

Regina stopped in front of the boy and looked over his strange clothing before demanding, "what are you doing on my road?"

Henry grinned and breathed out a relieved laugh as his tears threatened to fall and she cocked her head in vicious curiosity at his reaction. Her voice was harsh and hard but he was so happy to hear it. She wore tight black leather pants, black heeled boots, and a dark blood red shirt beneath a black coat tightly fitted around her narrow waist and the hem skimmed the forest floor. If he hadn't have known better he would have been absolutely terrified. But instead he jumped forward and wrapped his arms securely around her waist.

Her hands went up at the unexpected contact and her eyes widened while her jaw dropped enough for her red lips to part softly as she inhaled sharply. Her guards stepped forward to pull him off her but she waved her hand in a gesture for them to stop and they did. The boy clung to her and she looked down at him and tried to step away but he stepped with her and buried his face deeper in to her chest. "What are you doing?" She growled but he only started crying.

"I made a mistake and now I'm lost."

"Well I assure you I am not the person you want to be happy to see, my dear boy," she explained bitterly but could already feel her heart softening for the child.

Henry smiled and lifted his head from her chest to look in to her eyes to find the only familiarity to be the colour, "I know exactly who you are."

"Then why do you insist on staying so close?"

"Because I know who you are," he nodded slowly but she only squinted her eyes a fraction and refused to hold him back, "you're my mom."

Regina laughed and shook her head, "I am no mother."

"Not yet."

"If you are insinuating that I am just going to pick you up off the street-"

"No, I'm sorry, I didn't explain that very well," he shook his head and the rage burned in her eyes, "I'm sorry for cutting you off," he added quickly and she tilted her head and threatened to step away from him, "I'm not from here. I'm from another land and I am from the future...sort of. I am your son and I accidentally fell through a portal. I found myself here because I was thinking about you as I fell because I had just heard your voice scream my name. I've never heard you so scared."

Regina cocked her head and picked at his story through her mind. She supposed it could happen. It was a hard story to grasp, "come."

"What?" He whispered hopefully and let her step out of his arms.

"You will tell me more of this intriguing story," she answered and opened the door to her carriage and turned to face him to find he had followed her and was standing right in front of her with big hopeful brown eyes that didn't contain the slightest bit of fear. Odd. "But I no longer care to stand in this forest."

...

Regina sat with one leg crossed over the other and her elbow resting on the narrow window ledge so her teeth could take hold of a finger as she watched the young boy press his nose to the glass of the window on the other side of her carriage. She didn't know how to feel about him or if she could trust him or his story. But she wanted to. He seemed like an honest boy.

"Hey, mum?"

Such a strange title to be called. She was no mother. It had her furrowing her brow and biting down on her finger just a little more in her discomfort. She was far out of her element and the boy seemed to recognize that for moments later he had spun back around with an apologetic expression.

"Sorry," he laughed quietly and walked back toward her to sit down across from her, "should I call you something else?"

"No," she shook her head slowly and placed her hand back in her lap as she studied the boy and whispered, "no 'mom' is...fine."

"Great!" He grinned and nestled deeper in to the seat and studied her right back. It was strange to have her not know who he was. No one knew him better than his mother did. "You are very pretty," he smiled and her eyes softened as she cocked her head a little, "I like your hair. It is much shorter now. Well later..." He laughed a little and shook his head, "I like it long, it's really pretty."

"...thank you," she whispered kindly and watched his smile curl wider as he leaned forward to put his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees.

"You're welcome."

"What is your name?" She asked with a cock of her head and a slight squint of her eyes.

"Henry," he beamed and she blinked and tucked her chin, "you named me after your father...is he still alive? Like right now?"

"Of course he is alive..."

"Oh good! Have you put Snow under that sleeping curse yet?"

"...no..." She knitted her eyebrows together and watched the relief relax the boy's shoulders, "how do you know of my intentions for Snow White?"

"I'm from the future," he chuckled and her eyes were guarded once again so he continued a little lighter, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know when I am. And since you haven't cursed Snow yet and haven't cast the dark curse then there is still a good chance that you can be saved from yourself."

"Your notions are...sweet, Henry," she shook her head and he tilted his, "but I am in no place to be saved."

"I have seen who you are. You have goodness inside you and back in my time you are trying so hard to redeem yourself but no one is willing to see it. So I figure we get a head start before you go totally crazy."

"How do you know so much of my past? Surely if what you say is true I would not tell such stories to a child."

"Well no. You are very reluctant to share but I had a book that sort of roughly told the stories of the Enchanted Forest. Still not sure how it was made though or where it came from. You tried your very hardest to convince me none of it was true. But when the curse broke and everyone started remembering who they were, you couldn't deny it anymore. It's really complicated."

"Indeed," she nodded slowly and looked over him once again. He looked back at her with such joy and trust it was difficult for her to grasp. No one had ever looked at her like that. "Who is your father Henry?"

"That's...complicated..."

"Why? Do you not know him?"

"Well I do but I only just met him a little while ago."

"Had I kept him from you?"

"No," Henry shook his head and shrugged, "no you didn't know he was my father until after I was told," he watched her expression change from confusion to complete horror and after a quick reread of his words he laughed and shook his head. "Oh, no, no it's not like that, no. You adopted me," he smiled and she settled back down, "unfortunately you still don't have love," he added quietly and caught the way she flinched ever so slightly.

"If I am to believe that I am in fact your mother then you had best give me something concrete, my dear boy."

Henry gave a sad smile at her distrust. He didn't blame her, it was a far fetched story and she had more than a difficult time trusting people as it was. "I don't really have anything concrete to show you," he answered nervously and she took a slow breath and pursed her lips a little and it had him smiling a little. She always did that when she was unhappy. It was nice to see some elements of her he knew in this other form of her, "but if you give me a chance maybe I can prove it to you."

...

Regina walked with rather slow steps up through the courtyard of her castle as Henry skipped happily around her laughing and chattering about no one thing in particular. Curiosity had gotten the better of her and she took him home with her. The fact that he claimed to be her son should have been enough to convince her. No one would willingly call her their mother let alone call her their mother with such enthusiasm. Besides...she was lonely.

"Hey it's your apple tree!" He cheered and ran up ahead of her to jump up on the small wall surrounding it and look up at its branches, "I didn't know you brought it with you from this land to ours."

"Neither did I," she shrugged as she stopped next to him. He laughed at her reply and the sound had her smiling just a little.

Henry turned to glance her way only to do a double take when he saw her small smile. He grinned at the sight and turned around on the small wall so he was facing her, "you should smile more," he grinned and her smile grew a little more as she looked up at him, "it suits you," with quick gentle hands he held her head in place and dropped his head to give her a quick but lingering kiss on her cheek before he jumped off the wall and continued up ahead with a quiet laugh.

Regina tensed at the gesture and her lips parted slightly with surprise that remained after he had left. Her fingers carefully found her cheek and tears pricked her eyes as she slowly turned to watch him walk away. It was truly the first kind and tender gesture anyone had shown toward her in...well she didn't know how long.

"You coming, mum?" He called down to her to snap her from her thoughts. He hadn't really thought too much on the kiss but now that he had and he saw her standing there with her fingertips softly touching her cheek he remembered that she wasn't his mom but was the Evil Queen. No one cared for the Evil Queen.

"Yes," Regina answered quietly, just a whisper. She blinked the tears from her eyes and cleared her thick throat as she slowly dropped her fingers from her face and called up to him loud enough for him to hear, "yes I'm coming."

...

With a heavy blanket draped over his shoulders, Henry padded quietly through the castle hall toward his mother's room...well...the queen's room. She had given him instructions on how to get there should he need anything from her in the night that a handmaiden could not provide. He had stayed in his large bed for a good long while but he could not rest his worried mind. He was a world away from his family. Not to mention the time difference. How was he going to get back? He knew back in Storybrooke everyone would be searching for a way to get him back. At least his mother had seen him fall and had a place to start.

Silently he pushed open one of the large wooden doors and peered inside the large room. It was dark outside but the room was softly lit with a burning and crackling fire. The large bed was made and untouched which had him frowning as he stepped inside. He had had his suspicions that she wouldn't be sleeping. She wasn't very good at sleeping when she had something on her mind and he figured, being the Evil Queen, she had a lot more to think about. His scan of the room stopped at the small sofa in front of the fireplace when he saw the back of her head above the back of the sofa.

He shrugged the blanket tighter around his shoulders and started walking her way, making it to the end of the sofa furthest from where she sat with glazed eyes staring in to the fire. She hadn't gotten undressed yet. Not really anyway. She had removed her coat and her boots and let down her long hair but her black leather pants and sleeveless blood red silk shirt remained. Her legs were curled up beside her and she was nestled into the corner of the sofa with her hands in her lap and her long dark hair was pushed over to one side of her head and fell over her shoulder. Upon closer inspection there was a long thin chain around her neck and resting in the palm of her hand was a simple ring he had seen her treasure many times before back in Storybrooke.

"Hey," he whispered softly to announce his presence to her. She jumped a little and her startled dark eyes instantly focused on his as her hand quickly closed around the ring. He stepped closer and watched the fire glint in her irises with a shy smile.

"Did you need something, dear?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head as he inched closer.

"No not really," he shook his head and stopped in front of her, "I just couldn't sleep."

"Missing your family?"

Henry nodded a little and her expression remained carefully guarded but he knew her better than that. From him she was hiding the slight disappointment that he didn't want solely her and was hiding the fact that despite spending not even an entire day together, he had wormed his way in to her heart and was only digging deeper. "I mean practically all of my family is here except for my birth mum and dad. Only 'cause she isn't born yet and he is...well I don't know where he is right now. But it's not the same really. Except you," he smiled at her and her face grew conflicted with disappointment and relief, "other than the fact that you don't love me and don't know who I am and haven't quite calmed down, you're pretty much the same."

They remained in silence for a few moments longer, the queen trying to figure him out and the boy already knowing her. Not really having much else to say, Henry climbed on to the sofa and curled up right next to her in the bend of her knees with his head on her chest over her heart as he slipped his arms around her slim waist. He smiled when she tensed and held her breath as she lifted her arm so as not to touch him as he nuzzled in deeper. Once he settled she hesitantly let her arm fall awkwardly around his back and he smiled a little wider and took a deep breath of her perfectly familiar smell and felt his eyes start to fall shut, "I love you, mom."

Regina squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath as he nuzzled in even deeper in to her side with a slow tired exhale. With all she had done how could anyone love her? How could a child love her? But he did, she could feel it, she could feel that old but familiar sensation waking her heart from its cold slumber. But did she want to wake up?

As he sunk heavier against her and his breaths grew slower with his sleep she allowed herself to relax and hug her arm a little tighter around the boy as she cautiously lowered her head to lay atop his. She breathed out a slow breath through her nose and kept her eyes closed as a tear rolled down her cheek. She had forgotten how nice it was to have someone to hold and how nice it was to be loved.


	2. Chapter 2

**Holy reviews, Batman! That's fantastic! I'm absolutely THRILLED by them and the fact that you are enjoying the new story! Woohoo! :D please keep reviewing! I'll try and update as fast as I can but summer time is a busy time for me! I'll probably be bringing in David in the fourth chapter :)**

**And happy Canada Day to myself and my fellow Canadians! **

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Henry woke up with a heavy warm blanket around him and when he took a deep breath and nuzzled his head in deeper he found that the smell he inhaled was his mother's and the pillow he was burying his face into was actually her chest. He laid there comfortably for a long while before he opened his eyes and was unable to recognize his surroundings. And then he remembered.

He remembered that he wasn't home in his mother's arms but was in fact in the Enchanted Forest in the arms of the Evil Queen. So he wound his arms a little tighter and pushed his head in a little more. The movement had her waking up and by the way she tensed and inhaled a little sharply he was led to believe she was trying to remember what was happening as well. "Good morning, mum," he greeted with a yawn and then tilted his head back to look up at her.

Regina furrowed her brow a little and blinked down at the boy, "good morning."

"What are we gonna do today?"

"I don't know."

"Well what were you going to do before I came?"

"I was going to put Snow White under a sleeping curse," she answered plainly and Henry laughed quietly and repositioned himself so he laid more on his stomach and his chin rested on her breasts while his arms remained wrapped around her middle. It was still beyond her comprehension as to how this boy was so comfortable in her presence.

"Well I'm not gonna let you do that," he laughed and shook his head while he watched as her eyes flicked around over his face in her attempt to make sense of him.

"Well then what am I to do with her?"

Henry shrugged and his lips formed a simple line, "leave her be?"

"No."

He laughed quietly at her sharp and hot tempered reply and she squinted her eyes, "just put it off for a little while. See if I can change your mind."

"And what am I to do with Charming? Leave him to rot in my dungeon?"

"Um...well...you could let him out? You could actually probably get him on your side if you give him just a glimpse of who you can be," he smiled enthusiastically and she cocked her head irritably.

"Oh? And who can I be?" She snapped and he frowned but she kept her hard stare.

He frowned because she was so much more ill tempered in this area of time and so unable to trust anyone at all. So he gave her simple honesty, "kind, loving, gentle, fun, protective, and happy. You can still be strong and clever and powerful and stuff but you can be so much more too," he smiled and her jaw relaxed enough for her red lips to part almost unnoticeably, "you can be you and you can be happy being you."

...

"What are you doing, dearie?" He chimed irritably with his fingers waving up around his head as he walked up to her after materializing in her hallway and fell in step behind her.

"I suppose you could say I'm exploring other options," she deadpanned and continued forward unfazed by his sudden appearance.

"Other options for what?" He clenched his jaw and gave his head a sharp tilt.

"Just other options."

"Yes, well, as curious as I may be about these other options you speak of, I am not curious enough to allow you to continue after them."

Regina shot him an unimpressed look over her shoulder before straightening her neck, "dear, dear, Rumple I have things to do. Is there something you need from me?"

He opened his mouth to give an answer but was cut off by a new voice.

"Whoa!" Henry blurted out and then chuckled quietly to himself when he stepped out of his room and laid eyes on Rumplestiltskin, "Mr Gold?! You look so...different and...what is up with your skin?"

Rumple rocked his weight back on one foot and pointed at the child, "who is this?"

Biting her tongue to keep herself from laughing at Henry's reaction, Regina nodded in his direction, "other options."

Henry walked closer and studied him up close. His eyes were strange and his skin looked as though it had gold flakes on it. And it was sort of green. And his hands were weird and his nails were weird. He had never seen anyone wear so much leather at once. Not even Hook, "so this is what you look like as The Dark One...huh. I think I much prefer you as Storybrooke's pawn broker."

"What are you talking about? Who are you?"

"I'm Henry," he grinned up at him and rocked on his heels and toes as her clasped his hands behind his back, "I'm from the future and I fell through a portal back in time or something like that."

"Did you now?" Rumple grinned coldly and nodded once in sharp movements and the boy merely nodded his head, "and how did you end up here in the clutches of the queen?"

"Well I want to be here if that's what you're asking."

"Oh? And why is that?"

Henry said nothing in reply and instead flicked his eyes to herself in a silent question as to whether or not she wanted Rumplestiltskin to know, "he is claiming to be my son," she supplied and Henry smiled at her and then looked back to Rumple.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" He let out a shrill laugh with his words and took a step closer to the boy, "you are not from the future."

"Yes I am."

"Then prove it," he hissed as he leaned down to the boy.

"How?"

"Tell me something."

"Uh okay. How about Baelfire," he offered and Rumple went instantly still and watched him with intense unblinking eyes, "he is your motivation for manipulating my mum in to enacting the dark curse for you because you can't do it yourself. After the curse breaks you go and find him and while the two of you aren't exactly the best of friends you are trying," at the doubtful squinting of Rumple's eyes, Henry continued, "too far ahead in time? I guess cause you haven't seen that far yet yourself. Okay so how about my mum's execution that Snow calls off at quite literally the last second? Right before the arrows pierce her heart. You then help enact a protection spell for Snow and David so that my mum can't hurt them in this land anymore but the catch to that spell was that she can hurt them in other lands which is what led her to enact the dark curse.

Or how about when Snow and David trap you with squid ink and lock you in a special cell? I mean you're there cause you want to be there so you can let the other pieces fall in to place. As well as learn the name of Snow and David's baby because she is the one that will break the dark curse after her twenty eighth birthday and will then allow you to search for Baelfire in that land without magic."

"Impossible," he growled through his teeth and looked him up and down.

"Not really though because I am here."

"Get rid of him."

"Well I am trying to find him a way back home. And what is this about manipulating me to enact this dark curse?"

"Never mind that, dearie!" He snapped furiously with a higher pitch to his tone as he stared down the boy and waved a careless hand in her direction. "Get rid of him," he nodded and the boy stared right back with only a mere flicker of nervousness, "or I will."

Regina smiled bitterly at him behind his back but she was rather impressed that Henry did not back down, didn't even blink, at Rumple's threat. When the imp disappeared Henry looked to her with a happy expression and took a step closer to her with his hands behind his back, "well aren't you just a bundle of information."

Henry chuckled in reply and she allowed a small smile to brighten her features, "pretty sure you're smarter though."

Regina let out a quiet laugh and gave a shake of her head before she started walking again and Henry turned on his heels and walked right beside her, "you said Rumple is manipulating me to enact a curse," she inquired and he nodded in confirmation, "I do not like being manipulated."

"Well I think I have an easy fix for that!"

"Oh?"

"We just need to find you love!" He grinned and she looked down at him entirely unimpressed and irritated, "seriously! If you find love in someone you'll be willing to fight for him and he'll be ready to fight for you! There will be no reason for you to spiral so far down that you enact the dark curse and you will be strong enough to stand up against Rumplestiltskin and plus you'll have a perfect support system! It can't go wrong!"

"Henry I don't want love."

"That's a lie and we both know it!" He protested and her expression flickered dangerously.

"Love is weakness."

"Love is strength."

"Henry-"

"You taught me that," he pressed firmly and she clenched her jaw in irritation, "you've had a rough go of things, I know that. But you do come to the conclusion that Cora was wrong," he nodded and the queen straightened her neck and looked ahead of them at the mention of her mother, "I'm not asking you to throw a party for possible suitors," he chuckled quietly and she grew more irritable, "I just think you should open your heart to the possibility that you can find love again."

"And who could love me?" She snapped harshly.

"I don't know," he shrugged and then looked up at her and ducked his head a little to give her the higher ground, "but I will always love you. And that is a start."

**-Storybrooke, the day before-**

"Henry!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, not caring how it sounded. Her heart suddenly lurching out of her chest in terror as she watched her son fall in to a portal screaming for her as she ran toward him as fast as she could. "Henry!" She screamed again but she was too late. She dove for him, her hand outstretched for him but it hit the pavement and the portal snapped shut without her. "No," she whispered and stared at the concrete sidewalk with wide frantic eyes that darted everywhere over the rough grey surface. "No," she said a little louder and felt the tears burn in her eyes and her heart ache in her throat, "no, no, no, no!"

"Regina!"

"No, no!" She shook her head and tried to dig at the concrete with her nails only to move on to hitting the sides of her tight fists against it, "no!"

"Regina," David panted as he dropped down next to her but she ignored him and beat her fists once more against the concrete before they stilled there and she started crying quietly, "please tell me you at least know where he went," he pleaded and got his answer when she let out another cry that shook her shoulders as she slowly dropped down forward and rested her forehead on her loose fists against the sidewalk.

"Shit," he breathed out and rubbed his hands over his face while his mind went wild in search of a resolution to this ordeal. He had nothing. He placed a comforting hand on her back and rubbed it slowly up and down her arched back while she cried. He had no real words of comfort but he was trying to reassure himself as well that he did not just lose Henry forever too, "he'll be alright, we'll get him back."

Regina shook her head against her hands and then sat up slowly, David's hand moving from her back up to her shoulders and neck. "There are an infinite amount of worlds out there, David," she shook her head and swallowed and sniffed her tears back, "we are not going to be able to find him. Henry needs to come back here," she whispered, her features twisted in pain and loss as she looked up to David.

He stared at her for a little while with his hand on the back of her neck with his thumb moving slowly. Then he started shaking his head, "no...no! No there has to be a way to get to him!" He protested and felt a little bit of panic seep in to his chest.

Regina simply shook her head and pushed her shaking hands through her hair as she stood up, afraid to speak when sharp cries could come out instead.

"Regina!" He called as he pushed himself up and hurried up to her side, "where are you going?"

"To find Gold," she stated with a little more strength to her voice and barely swallowed back a sob but she could do nothing for the tears rolling down her cheeks. She couldn't lose Henry. She couldn't lose her little boy. Not Henry. Not him too. She closed her eyes in a long blink and after a few of her hurried strides she noticed that David's steps were still right beside her, "where do you think you're going?"

"I'm following you."

**-Enchanted Forest, present day-**

"I don't know what to do with you."

"Feed me, pet me, let me out to run around every now and then," Henry grinned and laughed through his teeth as Regina bit back a smile and a laugh.

"Pet you," she laughed under her breath and shook her head in amusement as he laughed a little louder while he reached forward and snatched up an apple from the table and took a bite, "how do you know that one isn't poisoned?"

Henry laughed at her teasing tone and swallowed his bite, "cause you like me," he grinned and took another bite, "besides," he shrugged and then swallowed, "you totally put me under a sleeping curse already. Or later I guess."

"I what?"

"I was being annoying and you were tired of me," he stated simply and then burst in to laughter when her eyes opened wide in shock, "I'm just kidding! It was an accident and it messed you up for quite awhile. I wasn't under it for very long. Just overnight," he shrugged with a smile and took another bite of his apple. She simply let out a slow huff of air from her nose with a shake of her head and dropped her eyes to the table. "So. What are we going to do today?"

"Get you some proper clothes."

"Cool!" He grinned and wiggled in his chair a little with his excitement, "hey. What day is it?"

"Thursday."

"Okay but like what is the date?" Henry chuckled and moved his hands.

"The last day of January."

"Really? It's so nice out."

"It's been a rather tame winter. I expect it will snow again soon before spring comes."

...

"Can you teach me how to ride?"

Regina nodded as she watched her seamstresses take the boy's measurements, "well I'm not very well going to have an incapable biped shadowing me."

Henry chuckled and watched the seamstress measure the length of his arm, "you could have just said 'yes'," she didn't say anything in return and she was behind him so he couldn't see her expression, "what about how to use a sword? Or a bow?"

"If you wish to use a sword I can set you up with my black guard. If you wish to use a bow you have the choice between my black guard or myself."

"Awesome," he grinned madly, giddy with the knowledge that he had such things at his disposal, "and what about David?"

"What about him?"

"Are you going to let him out?"

"Not today."

Henry smiled to himself and swallowed a happy laugh. It wasn't a flat out 'no', it was a 'stick a pin in it so we can come back to it' kind of answer and in his mind that was progress. "So the news of me living here is going to spread like wildfire isn't it?"

"I don't imagine so, no."

"Why not?"

"Because my hired hands do not speak of what happens here unless they wish a shorter life upon themselves," she stated plainly and flashed her dark eyes to the seamstress now measuring the boy's shoulders.

Henry watched the seamstress maneuver around him and cocked his head at her as she worked undeterred by the queen's words. It was going to take him some time to get used to her in this time period.

...

"So you are from the future?"

"Yes. Well...no...sort of..."

"Pick an answer."

"My mum-you thirtyish years from now-told me that there are rules to magic. Can't make someone love you, can't bring someone back from the dead, and can't change the past."

"Correct."

"So time travel is sort of impossible. Plus I'm still here. If I were changing things I don't think I'd still exist because my family tree is kind of whacked and nudging one piece of the timeline out of place would screw everything up. So I don't think I went back in time. I think I fell in to a parallel world of sorts. One that's really really _really_ close in comparison to the one I'm from."

"Hmm," Regina hummed shortly in thought as she took in his logic while he got dressed on the other side of the intricately carved wooden partition. "How old are you, Henry?"

"Eleven."

Regina nodded as he stepped from around the wood and stood before her, tugging the leather vest so it sat straight. She stood up and looked him up and down and he stood entirely relaxed and played with the white linen loosely clothing his arms and close around his wrists as she walked a circle around him. "You are a scrawny little thing," she stated and he laughed and looked up at her with a smile. She met his eye for a moment but then looked back to his clothing and ran a hand through his hair and she was warmed to see he didn't so much as flinch at the contact and instead grinned happily up at her.

"Hmm," she hummed shortly once more and then walked away from him and he easily fell in step beside her. Something she still was not remotely used to and found very hard to wrap her head around.

"These clothes are awesome," he laughed quietly and stuck his arms out on either side of him as he looked down at his brown leather vest with a wide belt around his middle and then watched his feet as he walked in new brown leather boots.

Regina couldn't help the smile that crept on to her mouth as she watched him enjoy himself in her company. "There will be plenty more throughout your stay here," she nodded and he looked up at her happily.

"Awesome!" He grinned and laughed as he put a skip in his step and her smile became a little easier, "will you teach me how to use a bow?!"

Regina gave a soft huff of air out her nose in a silent laugh at his enthusiasm and nodded once, "I can get you started but I have other things I must attend to."

"Things like David?"

"No."

"Things like levelling villages?"

"No."

"Things like putting Snow under a curse?"

"No."

"Cool," he grinned up at her and she shook her head at him and twitched her eyebrows up a little as she straightened her neck to look ahead of her. He laughed under his breath to himself and her dark eyes flicked down to him but her head didn't move. Then he stepped in to her side and wrapped his arms around her waist and her arms went up while her strong steps faltered a little. He smiled at the way she tensed and tried to figure out what to do. Back in Storybrooke she would have leapt at the chance to hold him close and hold him tight.

But here she didn't know how.

"I'm glad you found me on the road and let me stay."


	3. Chapter 3

**I meant to post this yesterday when I got back home from the land of no internet I call camping ;) but then the Calgary Stampede happened and floor seats to Shania Twain happened and needless to say I got nothing done yesterday except for some excessive fangirling, broken eardrums, and a lost voice lol! But here you guys are! A day late but that's alright ;) CM has hit a bit of a road block but that should be fixed in the next day or so so it shouldn't be too long before that gets updated as well :) enjoy! Please leave a review!**

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Henry snuck in to the room quietly with the tray in his hands. He tiptoed around the bed with his bottom lip caught between his teeth and when he reached the side table he quietly placed the tray on top of it. When he turned to look at her she was still fast asleep and just as she did in Storybrooke, she looked much younger as she slept. Gone were the lines of pain and anger and loneliness and it made her look softer and prettier and gentler.

He smiled at her with a cock of his head and watched her sleep for a few seconds before he reached forward and gently took her hand in his and she stirred, "mum," he whispered and she blinked her eyes awake as she focused on him, "good morning."

"What on _earth_ has you waking me up at this ungodly hour?"

Henry laughed quietly in his amusement and shook his head, "actually the sun's been up for a while. Plus I made you breakfast," he added cheerfully and stepped a little to the side so she could see the tray of food.

"...Why are you making me breakfast?"

"Because I always make you breakfast on your birthday," he smiled and she paused, "the cook just about had my head for being down there but the seamstress happened to be there and she vouched for me and told him I wasn't a thief. Now he and I are friends and he showed me how to use the stuff here to cook for you," he shrugged his shoulders a little and smiled down at her and she looked up at him with a confused expression.

Still she said nothing. "Is it not your birthday? I kind of just assumed that it would be the same as my other mum's because everything else in the world is so similar and-"

"No, no," she cut him off gently and began pushing herself up in to a sitting position, "it is my birthday..."

"Awesome!" He grinned and turned around to grab the wooden tray of food and carefully spun back and placed it over her lap, the wooden legs over either side of her thighs. Her hands were up a little and her expression was still thoroughly confused as she stared at the food before her. "What's the matter?" Henry chuckled and leaned forward against the bed, "never had breakfast in bed before?"

"Well...no..."

"What seriously?"

"Yes...is this something you do often in your world?"

"Well sort of," he shrugged and climbed up on the bed and sat by her feet, "we do it on special occasions. Birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentines Day, stuff like that."

"Why?"

"So you don't have to get out of bed and cook your own breakfast!" He chuckled and she furrowed her brow and parted her lips to speak but he beat her to it, "now eat before it gets cold!"

...

He found her where she was most often. Looking out over the forest from her favourite hallway. The one with its entire side constructed of glass so you could get a spectacular view of the vast forest. She leaned forward just a little so her forearms rested on the railing and her wrists hung limply over the bar. She looked to be lost in thought and it had him sighing quietly and tilting his head a little as he walked toward her.

There had been nothing he could do to comfort her or brighten her spirits since she had become queen. She just continued to fall further in to darkness. He hated watching his beloved little girl lose herself in the shadows and to the lustful call of dark magic. Her attention was not drawn from the trees by himself but by a young boy rushing up to her side with a bouquet of various flowers he must have worked hard to find for it was not yet spring. He watched curiously while he continued to approach them and Regina accepted the boy's gift with a gentle smile as he over exaggerated a bow and extended the bouquet.

What jolted his heart and brought a smile to his face was the soft sound of his daughter's laugh. It was a sound he hadn't heard in many years. It was quiet but his ears tuned in to that perfect sound as soon as it left her smile. When he caught her eye he smiled a little more and she did the same. Also something she had not done in a good long while.

"It looks as though your spirits have been lifted today," he smiled and she hummed softly as the boy looked up at him curiously from Regina's side.

"Yes they have," she nodded once and Henry looked up at her with a proud grin and stepped in to her side a little.

"And who is this young lad?"

"This is Henry," she nodded and looked down at him as she placed a hand on his shoulder. Again she was happy to see him smile up at her rather than try to escape her touch, "he is a long way from home and we have decided it's best he stays here until we find him a way home. Henry this is my father; Henry."

"Really?" Henry grinned up at her in excitement and she nodded once so he look back to the older man, "it's so nice to meet you!" He laughed and stepped forward a little as he extended his hand for him to shake.

Henry breathed out a laugh at the boy's enthusiasm and took his hand and shook it, "it is nice to meet you as well. May I ask how you managed to find your way in to this palace?"

"I ran in to her on the road the other day and she found me interesting so she decided to keep me around," Henry shrugged with a smile. A smile that grew wider when she began combing her fingertips through the hair above his ear. It was almost affectionate. But she was mostly just touching him because he let her and didn't lose his mind over the fact that the evil queen was so close to him. He enjoyed her touch and she found joy in being able to touch someone without them being afraid.

"Oh? And what is so intriguing about yourself?"

"I'm from another world."

"Which one?"

"Storybrooke. But I am running this theory that it's also in like a totally different universe. Like parallel universe," he nodded and spoke with his hands while Regina continued to play with his hair with one hand.

"Parallel?" He inquired and the boy nodded, "how parallel?"

"Like could be mistaken for having gone back in time, parallel," he nodded slowly and the older man's eyebrows lifted, "yup. Accidentally dropped a magic bean."

"Your parents must be worried."

"Oh I'm sure mum's losing her mind right now. Both of them. But especially my mum. Emma's probably freaking out too but not as much. Grandma and grandpa are probably going all hopeful and 'we'll find a way!' and that's going to drive mum crazy...thing is she knows she won't be able to come find me because she knows I could be literally anywhere and it's up to me to get back to her. She doesn't know I'm in good hands though," he smiled and leaned in to the queen as he wrapped his arms around her waist while the older man watched him curiously.

Henry glanced up at his daughter and then back to the boy attached to her hip and cleared his throat gently, "I do not mean to insult you, my darling daughter. But Henry do you know who Regina is?"

"Yeah. Who doesn't? She's the 'evil' queen," he shrugged and nuzzled his head in to her side and smiled a little more because she was getting used to him wanting to be close to her and wasn't tensing as much or as often. "I was adopted as a baby by the evil queen in my world," he smiled and the older Henry cocked his head in surprise. He didn't say anything more and instead looked back up to his mother.

Her expression was of pure curiosity as she gently raked her fingertips through his hair. It had him smiling up at her and she tilted her head as her big brown eyes flitted across his features. She was relaxed and had let her stoney mask fall a little for him to reveal the woman he knew. The woman who had raised him. Gentler and cautious about love but still fierce and ready to fight if it was demanded of her.

"You're funny," Henry laughed lightly and those dark gentle eyes flicked to meet his while her fingertips moved behind his ear and followed the line of his jaw to where they stopped beneath his chin.

...

He now stood a distance from her with the man he was named after while she lost her temper on a pair of unfortunate black knights. Her gentle eyes were now burning with a rage he had never seen and her teeth were bared in a snarl so vicious he did not think her capable of. Her posture was aggressive and tense and her voice was absolutely furious. It had something to do with Snow, that much he knew, but he did not know what exactly.

He had to admit she was terrifying when she was in full on evil queen mode. It made him uneasy and it made him want to turn and run but he stayed put. "Is she always like this?" He questioned quietly as she yelled at her guards for being incompetent.

"More often than not," he replied solemnly.

"...what did she used to be like? Before she was forced to marry the king? Before Daniel was killed?"

Henry gave a long tired sigh and a slow shake of his head, "she was a gentle girl. So kind and so incredibly gentle. Her heart was big and pure. While it is still big today, she keeps it locked away so it is not in danger of getting hurt again. She used to smile all the time. It was a beautiful smile and I miss it dearly. Her laugh was music to my ears and now that melody is heard by no one. She was generous as well. Always giving aid to those who needed it. Her mother never approved so she hid it from her but she never had to worry about hiding her generosity from me.

"She used to love so easily and so freely and I wish that naivety was spared in her. But it wasn't. She used to despise magic. In a way I believe she still does. But dark magic is seductive and she fell victim to it and has been unable to escape its clutches. She is lost and she is stubborn and she is proud. Too proud to ask for help when she needs it most of all..."

"Well...why don't you help her anyway?"

"I do not know where or how to begin. She pushes me away every time I try."

"Of course she does but you're her father, you have to be more stubborn than she is!"

"I am afraid I simply am not," he shook his head regretfully and looked to the boy to find him with his lips pursed together in irritation as he let out a tense sigh out his nose. It brought a gentle smile to his face. It was an identical expression to that of Regina's when she was irritated, "you certainly were raised by a form of my daughter weren't you."

Henry opened his mouth to argue further for the queen's case but let his jaw close again when she raised her voice to its highest volume saying something regarding why she even had them when they were so incapable and she could do it better on her own. Then she spun around and stormed off with strong furious steps and the guards held their place until she motioned for them to follow with a sharp jerk of her arm and they quickly obeyed.

With his and her father's presence forgotten she stalked off with a sway to her hips, a bounce in her long wavy hair, and the fabric of her long fitted coat twisting and flowing behind her. He knew he shouldn't be because he had only been there a grand total for two days and three nights, but he was disappointed. Disappointed that she had so quickly lost her temper and was off to go cause harm once again when only hours ago she was so gentle and content. He supposed he was just going to have to try harder.

...

When she came back she was more furious than before she had left. She hadn't greeted him, hadn't so much as looked his way. He could hear her though from the other side of her door. She was throwing things and shouting in her rage and he took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he squared his shoulders. Then he let out his breath, opened his eyes, and pushed open the door.

He ducked when she whirled around with teeth bared and if he hadn't he would have been hit square between the eyes with some sort of glass ornament that now laid unrecognizable in hundreds of shattered pieces behind him on the stone floor. When he met her eyes he suppressed a shiver at the cold anger that filled her and instead held her gaze bravely. Or foolishly. He wasn't all that sure which one yet.

"What do you want?" She growled out through her bared teeth, her chest rising and falling sharply with each angered breath.

"I want to help."

Regina gave a low chuckle through her teeth and then leaned forward with a stiff nod of her head and snarled, "get out."

"No," he stated simply and stood his ground. He was walking on incredibly thin ice in dealing with her like this. He was talking with the evil queen now. Not Regina, not his mother, but the malicious queen. He was starting to believe himself to be a fool for even trying. Especially when her expression flickered dangerously in to murderous. She could kill him, she didn't love him, he intrigued her and she was growing fond of him but that was pretty much it. She could kill him with very little guilt or grief on her part.

"Get out," she demanded again, her voice low with an unspoken threat. He didn't so much as blink and she watched his resolve strengthen. Her lips curled in to a deadly grin as she cocked her head and bit out viciously, "who do you think you are to disobey me?"

"Stop it," Henry bit back and stepped further in to the room as he leaned forward a little to enhance his stubbornness.

"Excuse me?!"

"This isn't you!"

"Who are you to say who I am and who I am not?!"

"I am your son!"

"You are _not_ my son!" She bellowed and closed the distance between them and leaned forward so she loomed over him so her face was inches from his, "you are a boy I picked up of the _street_! You are nothing more than that to me! Do not forget your place, _boy_."

"Fine! I may not really be _your_ son but this is not who you are and I know that better than anyone!"

"You know nothing about me!"

"I know more than you know yourself right now," he snapped back and refused to back down despite how much she made him want to run away and cry, "you don't even know who you are!"

"I know exactly who I am," she growled, her dark eyes moving pointedly between his equally dark eyes.

"You have no idea," he countered sternly and her grinning teeth parted and closed in her anticipation for more words to leave her sharp tongue while her stormy eyes moved between his. Her chest was rising and falling sharply once again as her anger bubbled inside her. His mother back home would have knocked him senseless if he so much as dared to speak to her like he was speaking to the queen now. But he believed she needed to hear it.

"You are an arrogant child," she hissed and felt her fingers flex with the desire to put him back in his place.

"And you are a murderous witch," he bit back and the corners of her mouth twitched higher for a moment and then he leaned in a lite closer and whispered harshly, "just like your mother."

That sent her over the edge and his head jerked to the side when she laid a hard slap across his cheek and his hand immediately found the tender skin. But he did not back down.

"Don't you dare compare me to her!" She screamed but heard her voice start to shake as panic surrounded her and slowly started constricting around her like a snake.

"I am not wrong though am I?!" He shouted back with tears burning in his eyes. Not once had his mother ever laid a harmful hand on him. It hurt him more than he thought it would. It was an achy pain that filled his chest and tightened his throat with the desire to cry. She stood up tall and turned from him but not before he as the panic start to show in her furious expression.

"I am not my mother!"

"You are! You play with people's minds! You tear their hearts from their chests and use them as puppets if you decide not to kill them! I bet you don't even know how many hearts you have in your vault anymore! You let your magic take over! You don't even remember the days that you despised magic! You are cruel! You are cold! Your eyes are empty just like hers!"

"Stop it!" She screamed at him, her coat swirling around her feet as she spun around to face him but he continued on with tears in his eyes that mirrored her own.

"You locked your heart away! How could you do that?! Your heart is so good and so strong and you locked it away!"

"I will not put myself through that pain again!"

"But you will let yourself suffer instead?!"

"I am not suffering!"

"Stop lying to yourself! You are suffocating in this castle! Do you not even remember the girl you used to be?!" He yelled and he watched her first tear fall despite the snarl that curled her lip back, "the girl who laughed and smiled?! Who rode bareback just because it got her on her horse's back faster?! The girl who loved so fiercely she was prepared to live the life of a peasant rather than that of a queen?!"

"Do not bring him in to this!" She screamed and felt her tears run down her cheeks. What had she become?

"You let her die!"

"I could not live like that!"

"You were a coward!"

"I was not a coward!"

"You were a coward! You still are! You chose to lock yourself away and let yourself die rather than fight to regain your footing and let yourself love again!"

"There is no living after that!"

"Yes there is! You didn't give yourself a chance to learn how!"

"Get out!"

"I am not leaving!" He cried and she yelled at the top of her lungs, her voice shaky with the cries that threatened to consume her.

"Leave me!"

"I am not going anywhere! I am not going to let you destroy yourself again! I can save you! You don't need to hurt anymore! You don't need to go through what my mom went through! You don't have to be miserable anymore! Just let me love you! Let me take care of you! Let me save you!" He screamed and she lifted her hands to cover her face as she let herself drop to the floor in defeat and exhaustion while quiet sobs shook her shoulders.

He felt his tears rolling down his cheeks but he did not bother to wipe them away as he cautiously approached her. Her legs were curled up beside her and one hand was covering her mouth while her other arm wrapped around her middle as she cried. He sniffed softly as he lowered himself to the floor next to her folded legs and sunk down further so that he could rest his head and shoulder on her legs and wrap his arms around her middle. He nuzzled the side of his face in to her lap as he pulled his legs up to curl beneath him as his tears continued to fall and his heart continued to ache.

He discovered he hated fighting with her like that. It hurt. But he needed to do it, he needed to be stubborn, he needed to force her a little, he needed to make her see what she was doing and he knew he was forgiven when she began moving her fingers softly through his hair as she tried to quiet her tears.

His arms wound tighter around her waist and squeezed a soft shuddered breath through her lips as her tears fell quickly down her damp cheeks, "I'm sorry," she whispered and bent forward so she curled over him and wrapped her arms around his head and shoulder.

"It's okay," he replied quietly through his silent tears and heard her give a small cry of relief in to his hair while her shoulders gently shook, "I love you still."


	4. Chapter 4

**What's up guys?! These reviews are FANTASTIC! Look at all of them! This is so exciting! It has been a BUSY week and I've been writing at every free minute I come across! This is just a quick chapter to get everything set up and such :) I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions or suggestions or scenes you would like to see then please feel free to leave them in a review and I will answer as soon as I can! **

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It had been nearly two weeks since he had fallen in to this world and they were no closer to finding him a way out. She had been doing better. There had only been a handful of arguments between them but none escalated quite as far as their first. She was stubborn, and so was he. Something he undoubtedly learned from her long ago.

They were getting along incredibly well otherwise. He still often caught her staring at him in wonder at how he kept his word to stay with her and how much he enjoyed her. He loved it. He found it endearing and amusing.

He grinned with his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he snuck up behind her. She sat in an ornately carved chair of a dark wood as she flipped through the pages of a book. One of many in her surprisingly large library. Probably some spell book of sorts. She was still set on having Snow's heart in a box but it wasn't so much a blind obsession anymore. He didn't really expect anything else yet.

He stepped right up behind the chair and held his breath as he moved his raised hands forward and gently clapped them over her eyes. He let out a light laugh in delight and mischief when she jumped just a little in surprise at the contact and loss of sight and then let out a long pleasant hum as she put the book back on the table.

"Did you need something?"

"No," he laughed with a shake of his head and she gave a short hum with a small nod of her head, her cheeks moving beneath his hands with the beginnings of a smile. He gave another quiet laugh before he removed his hands from her eyes and left a kiss on her cheek, something he knew quite well wrung a little life back in to her heart every time.

"It's time for my archery lesson," he grinned and she scoffed a quiet laugh with a shake of her head.

"No it's not."

"Sword?"

"You just returned from it."

"Riding?"

"We previously agreed on late this afternoon."

"Come on," he groaned a whine with his laugh and hung his arms around her as he dropped forward and rested his chin on her shoulder causing her to bite back a growing smile, "please?"

"I'm busy," she excused kindly and he let out a long dramatic sigh but nuzzled his chin in a little further to her shoulder and tipped his head so it rested against hers a little. She didn't really know how to react to the gesture so she simply didn't react and tried to continue on normally. However none of this was really all that normal to begin with. She did quite enjoy his company though. It was a surprisingly welcoming feeling to not be feared. She was still trying to wrap her head around it.

"What are you doing anyway?"

"Research."

"On what?"

"Methods of world travel."

"Find anything yet?" He asked curiously as he hugged his limp arms around her shoulders and looked down at the book still on the table.

"Not anything without a catch, no," she shook her head a little and then swallowed tightly in her discomfort at being out of her element with his arms wrapped around her.

"Hmm. What about magic beans?"

"There are not very many. It would take time to locate one and even longer to acquire it."

"But it'd work, right?"

"I don't see why not."

"Well then let's start looking for one!" He smiled and she shrugged, "I mean worse comes to worst we can go up the beanstalk and see if we can talk Anton in to helping us."

"Who is Anton?"

"The giant that lives up there. He is in Storybrooke now and you and him are working together to rebuild the magic bean crop that had been destroyed. You had stolen a plant before the crop was burned to the ground. Worked out pretty well for you actually," he chuckled and shrugged his shoulders up a little.

"This supposed future of mine perplexes me..."

Henry chuckled and gave a small shake of his head, "you'd throw me in to a mad house if I told you everything."

...

Regina walked down the spiralling stairs in to the dungeon, a sway to her hips, and fingertips gently trailing along the wall. She walked silently and nodded to the guards standing at their posts as she worked her way down the tunnels and slowed her pace in front of David's cell. He stood when he saw her, a scowl on his mouth and fury in his eyes. But she was not affected by it and slowed to a halt when she was perhaps a stride from the cell door.

He stared at her through hard eyes and she studied him carefully and slowly. And thoughtfully. What would happen if she were to let him out? How would she play her cards? How would he play his? Was the boy right? Or was he wrong? Would this shepherd aid her? Or cause her distress?

David watched her with his jaw clenched in rage and his brow furrowed for the same reason. She still said nothing and he was growing irritated by it. She just stood there. Studying him. He wanted to know why. He had yet to interact with her. He had seen her from a distance and he had seen her up close when she had taken him from George's guillotine but he spent the ride to her palace in a carriage of iron bars and she rode ahead on the back of a black horse.

He was irritated by that fact. That he had yet to hold a conversation with her even after being thrown down there in her dungeon for two weeks. And now there she stood before him. Silently.

However something was different, something was off. She was...curious...she was studying him but not with malice, not with any sick twisted playfulness. She was quiet and calm and curious. This was not the woman he knew her to be, "what do you want," he hissed furiously as he stepped right up to the bars with his teeth bared and his posture aggressive. Her dark eyes snapped up to his but they were not storming with rage or dancing with the game. They were analyzing him and it infuriated him.

"What do you want?!" He yelled and hit the bars hard with the palms of his hands. She didn't so much as blink. He snarled at her and her eyes never left his own as she stepped up to the bars with a gentle tilt of her head and a smooth sway of her hips. Her steady eyes never faltered and his furious ones didn't either. Not until he heard the distinct click of a metal lock being opened. He looked down to find she had inserted the key in to the lock and was now unhooking the heavy lock from the thick chain around his door.

He looked back up at her again and her eyes hadn't seemed to move. He looked her up and down quickly and she pulled she chain from the door, outstretched her hand to the side and let the heavy metal drop to the ground. Then with one last look at him, she turned and walked away as though nothing had happened. He watched her leave from behind the door and just before she disappeared in to the dark, she looked over her shoulder at him and then her eyes were lost to him.

For a little while he stared down the tunnel where she had disappeared and then he looked down at his door and gave it a little push and it slowly swung open. So he cautiously stepped out of it.

...

"What's up?" He smiled and her eyes flicked to his in a question and he laughed a little and rocked his head side to side in small movements as he rephrased, "what are you thinking so hard about?"

Regina watched him curiously, her elbow on her knee, her thumb beneath her chin, and her pointer finger against her temple as she sat on the stone stairs outside in one of the courtyards. After a a few moments of contemplation regarding the boy, she dropped her hand from her face and laid her arm across her thigh, "I let David out."

"You did?!" He grinned and she nodded once, her analyzing eyes betraying nothing, "well where is he?"

"He'll be up here soon I imagine."

"That's great! Is he going to stay?!"

"I don't know. I haven't spoken with him yet."

"But you're going to right?" He grinned excitedly and she nodded, her expression still giving nothing away as she studied him.

"Yes."

...

David walked down the courtyard with guards on either side of him and a scowl on his face. The sound of laughter caught his attention but did not change his expression and when they rounded a corner he was only confused by what he saw. The queen was in a small decorative water feature with a young boy and the pair of them were kicking water at one another, their laughter turning shrill when they were hit by the spray. The woman wore a deep red gown with a low sweetheart neckline embellished with jewels and different threads. It looked much different when she had come to him in the dungeon. Much softer and more feminine now in the daylight. Not that he had been paying much attention to what she had been wearing in the dungeon.

Her dark hair was left down and the ends were wet from their...game but he was not deterred by her new appearance. When the guards stopped he stopped as well and a moment later the queen and the boy came to a stop as well.

"Hi David!" Henry waved with a laugh and David furrowed his brow in response but Henry ignored it and sent one last kick of water in his mother's direction. He revelled in the startled shriek she gave before she laughed and kicked some back at him.

With a laugh still vibrating in her throat, Regina stepped out of the water and toward the prince, "you are dismissed," she nodded at her guards and they took their leave.

"I want answers."

"Of course."

He was taken aback by her open tone but his pause only lasted a moment before he snarled out, "why am I here?"

"Well originally you were here to be used as a taunt but that boy behind me has changed my mind. You are here now because I am going to give you three choices."

"And what are those choices?" He snapped angrily.

"Kill me," she offered and he squinted his eyes skeptically, "leave to go find your dear Snow White, or," she nodded and then took a step closer, "stay and keep me from falling back in to the dark. I cannot do it alone and this child will be going home soon," she admitted calmly and held his sharp blue stare. When a quick hand firmly gripped around her neck she was not surprised and remained unmoving and held his gaze.

He could feel her pulse beneath his fingers but it was steady, even when he squeezed his hand tighter around her fragile neck her pulse remained the same. Only her breath stopped. Her eyes were soft, calm, and accepting and she didn't so much as blink. Just as she had responded to him earlier. He didn't have it in him to kill with his bare hands when the victim of his rage didn't so much as try to fight back. Furious, he let go and pulled his hand away with a clenched jaw. Still she didn't so much as bat an eye and instead gently cleared her throat.

He was sure he was going to regret that decision later when she started killing again. But despite that assumption of regret, he took a step backward and then turned on his heel and walked away from her and toward the exit of the courtyard, taking a quick look at the boy who stood at the edge of the water feature he had been playing in. His expression was one of disappointment and what the boy was disappointed of, David couldn't say. Nor did he care at the moment.

He didn't know what game the woman was playing. But he needed to get back to Snow.

Henry watched David leave with a small frown and dropped shoulders. He really had thought that David would stay and help. Perhaps he was just too angry in this area of time. Or had been locked in a dark dungeon for a few too many days. He swivelled his head to look to his mother and she wore a face of indifference as she watched David leave. When she looked down to him she held his gaze for a moment, her dark eyes analyzing and learning his expression before she tilted her head in a quick subtle motion for him come with her as she turned back toward the castle.

...

David grumbled furiously to himself as he walked from the castle with nothing to his name but the clothes on his back. "Locked in a dungeon for two weeks," he grumbled with his quick pace, his arms starting to move in random flailing gestures as he rocked his head on his shoulders, "I changed my mind, David, I'm gonna let you out, David, oh and you want to try and kill me, David? Go ahead! I'll make it real easy for you now! I won't even flinch! Ready, set, go! That arrogant little wretch," he snarled through his teeth with his fists balled tightly in rage at his side.

"What even was that?!" He spun around to yell at the castle in the distance. He wasn't too far from it. He was right at the tree line of the forest. He was even more furious when the castle didn't offer him an answer. He was actually genuinely surprised she had let him go without incident. No guard stopped him on his way out, they didn't even look at him. But that surprise was not a priority when it came to the anger and confusion as to what the hell was going on with her.

And then for her to offer for him to stay and _help_ her? Was she serious? Why would anyone in their right mind wish to stay there with her?! He let out another furious growl and turned his back to the castle and began walking away only to have Snow's voice chime in his head.

_"You don't know her like I do! She is not this person!"_

_"She can be saved, David."_

_"I ruined her life. I need to right that wrong."_

_"Give her a chance!"_

_"Her heart is good!"_

_"You don't know who she is! I am the only one that does!"_

_"She is the greatest person I have ever met. I need to find her again."_

_"Why can't you just trust me?!"_

Every argument with Snow regarding Regina bounced around in his mind, all different tones, different volumes, different levels of anger and frustration at one another's stubbornness. He let out another furious yell and then spun back around and walked toward the castle again, refusing to admit to himself why he was really doing it, "I forgot my _fucking_ sword!"

...

"Does it hurt?"

"No."

"You sure?" He asked in concern as he rose on to his tip toes to inspect her neck for any blemish left by David's hand.

"Yes," she assured but he was not convinced and stepped even closer to her, "Henry-"

"I just want to make sure!" He insisted, more than a little panic and worry entering his voice as he looked up and met her dark curious eyes for a moment before looking back at her neck. Her shoulders dropped with her exhale as she conceded and let him inspect her neck and he worked on easing the slight churn to his stomach. "Your neck had a purple handprint on it for days after D-..." He cut himself off quickly and swallowed. She didn't need to know the story of Daniel in Storybrooke.

"You almost died and the whole thing messed you up for a while and the bruises freaked me out because...I just don't want to see them on you again," he shook his head quietly, his eyes focused on her throat.

Regina frowned and felt her heart soften in understanding while his steady focus remained on her throat. Slowly she bent down a little until her eyes were at his level and he had no choice but to look her in the eye. She reached forward with one hand, the backs of her gently curled fingers tenderly moving across his cheekbone to his temple and down his jaw. He leaned in to the contact with eyes that were staring to gloss with tears and she gave a small smile that was part frown and whispered kindly, "I promise I am alright, little prince."

Henry's expression creased at her gentle voice and choice of words that had a tear rolling down his cheek. It was all so familiar and comforting and with a choked breath her jumped in to her and wrapped his arms as tight as he could around her middle. He let out a shaky breath when her arms easily wrapped around him and held him close as she curled around him and he felt her soft breath ruffle his hair. Everything was okay.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry guys for the long time between updates! It's been a busy ass time and my weekends have been no better for the amount of free time. You guys are super hilarious though! I had no idea that my switching between "mum" and "mom" would cause such anarchy lol! I switch between the two all the time and I have my entire life and didn't think anything of it at all until you guys said something! Hahahaha I'll try and stick to just one ;) I hope you enjoy the chapter! Please leave a review with your thoughts and or suggestions! :) **

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David came in the way he had left. Up through the courtyard by the small water feature with a white bricked circumference, up the stairs, through the large doors, and down the hall. He walked with large furious steps, a scowl on his mouth, and glares at the guards who didn't so much as think to perhaps stop him from entering the castle. He stilled after rounding a bend in the hall and laying eyes on the queen herself.

She was gently pulling the young boy's tense arms from around her waist so she could gracefully lower herself to her knees before him, dark eyes focused tenderly on the boy. He was crying, David now realized, and a sharp stab of guilt hit him when the boy lifted his hands and gingerly touched the woman's neck as she wiped his tears away with her thumbs. He hadn't meant to frighten the him. She was so gentle with the boy. It was such an odd thing to witness.

The queen on her knees.

A tender and tentative expression worrying her dark eyes and soft lips as she ducked her head beneath to boy's to catch his eye.

Gentle slender fingers combing through the boy's hair above his ear before curling softly around the back of his neck while her thumbs brushed his cheeks dry.

Did the child not know what those hands were capable of?

Did he himself know what they were capable of? He was beginning to doubt it. Just a small fracture in his image of the merciless queen now present in his mind. It caused his scowl to grow a little more prominent and his forehead to crease with lines of confusion and displeasure. And then her voice came, echoing softly down the hall to his ears. So kind and tender. The polar opposite of the arrogant and powerful tone she used with king George when she had retrieved him in the first place.

"I am sorry it frightened you, my boy," she frowned a little in her apology as his thumbs moved softly over her throat, "I will do my best to assure you see nothing of the sort again," she promised kindly and after a moment of searching her dark eyes, Henry nodded and she smiled just a little, "alright?"

"Okay," he nodded with his whisper and sniffed quietly, listening to her soft hum before he wrapped his arms around her head and pulled her to his chest. He bowed his head a little so he could curl over her and rest the side of his head on the very top of hers. His eyes were closed and she was tense for a handful of seconds before she let out a long sigh, her breath warm and comforting against his chest as she relaxed and gently nuzzled her face in to his chest.

Once again she was out of her element and once again the boy eased her in to it and taught her it was okay to relax and be her truly gentle self. Without consequence. It felt so good. Every moment she spent with this boy she could feel weight lifting from her shoulders. And this time, along with many others previous, had tears of relief pricking behind her closed eyes. Relief that she could still find it in her to be kind, that someone could still care for her, and that she wasn't a lost cause. There was one person willing to fight tooth and nail for her and it was starting to rub off on herself. Little by little she was starting to find the will to be strong for herself.

"Don't cry," he scolded quietly with a light and quiet laugh under his shaky voice as her hands moved from his sides so her arms could wrap tightly around his middle, "you're gonna make me cry more," he laughed and sniffed quietly while she gave a soft laugh of her own against his chest.

"I'm sorry," she laughed shakily against his chest as a tear rolled down her cheek. No one had ever been so concerned for her life when she was in danger of losing it. She lifted her head with a pained and grateful smile when his hands moved to the side of her head and he smiled right back at her.

Henry wiped away her single tear with the pad of his thumb and the corners of her lips twitched a little higher in her smile and she tilted her head in to his moving hand. After a little while of watching him she closed her eyes softly and gently dropped her head forward again so she could rest her forehead and the bridge of her nose against his chest. Henry hummed a soft short endearing laugh and hugged her head again as he lowered his head atop hers once more.

This time, however, he did not close his eyes and in doing so his eyes fell upon David. He stood just up the hall with his arms folded over his chest and a hard and contemplative expression on his face. In response, Henry's arms wound a little tighter around his mother and his features creased with an expression of protectiveness and the smallest hint of anger. Regina was no fool, she felt the change and felt its protectiveness rather than simply a tighter hug. Henry was not surprised.

She lifted her face from his chest and quickly followed his gaze to David and when Henry glanced her way, letting his arms slacken only enough for her to look up, she was simply curious. And that was all. No smile or frown, just dark chocolate eyes curiously analyzing David. And then gracefully and without a word, she stood tall once again. Her arms relaxed at her sides and her hips swaying gently with every step she took. He tried to stay close to her but he stayed put at the gentle hand gesturing him to stand in his place.

Regina looked him up and down and stopped just within arms reach of him. He was strong and broad and admittedly handsome when angry. With a short quiet hum she opened her palm and as she turned her wrist up her fingers curled around the hilt and with the swinging motion his sword materialized between them, hilt in her right hand, tip at her left shoulder, a smug smirk on her lips as she gave a small rock of her head.

"You forgot your sword."

David gave a sharp displeased breath out his nose, his lips thin and his brow furrowed at those dark eyes sparkling with amusement and those plump red lips pressed together in a smirk. With an ease and gracefulness that surprised him, she flipped the sword blade over hilt and caught it again with her fingers holding the sharp metal of the blade just above the hilt and then offered the hilt for him to take. A gentler and more welcoming smile gracing those lips now.

After a moment of pause he reached forward and took his sword from her soft slender fingers and looked it over for any blemishes before sliding it in to its sheath at his hip.

"What are you doing here?" She asked plainly, neither and invitation or threat in her tone.

"I need answers."

"Answers to what?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yes," he finished sharply and silence hung in the air, the tension between them growing. Her smile that had once been soft and welcoming was now back to its more familiar curve. Bitter and harsh, paired with dark sharp eyes lit up with the challenge to put him back in his place.

"Ask away," she whispered coldly and pushed her head forward with her open and vicious smile.

David took half a step closer to her and her deadly smile curved a fraction higher while her dark eyes flicked back and forth between his, "what are you doing?"

"I am waiting for you to ask a proper question," she replied smoothly with a tilt of her head and his expression grew all the more angry.

"Why am I here?" He bit out and was infuriated further when she opened her pretty little mouth.

"As far as I know it is because you forgot your sword on the way out," she tilted her head further and leaned in a little closer to him.

A sharp huffed breath blew out his nostrils and his jaw clenched further while he smiled an irritated smile, "_why_ are you being so difficult?"

"I am answering your questions, _David_," she smiled with a sharp quirk of her head, entirely unimpressed by his tone of voice and aggressive demeanour he started this conversation with when she had tried-however temporarily-to play nice, "perhaps it is you who is simply not asking the right ones."

David breathed out a furious chuckle under his seething breath as he shook his head in tight movements, "I am here because you asked me to stay."

"Oh and here I thought it was because you forgot your sword."

"You are _infuriating_," he growled with something close to a snarl curling back his top lip. With a now rather wicked smile still turning those red lips, she took a breath to speak, her white teeth parting to allow her voice to pass only to have it immediately silenced before it was heard.

"Mom," Henry called in a tired and tender plea for her to stop her relentless badgering.

David's eyes went wide at the title and he shot his gaze to the boy who kept his eyes on Regina's back. His wide eyes snapped back to Regina and she had closed and relaxed her mouth as she dropped her gaze down and to the side as though she was looking behind her to the boy's voice. But she wasn't doing it with a scowl or any displeasure or anger. No it was quick acceptance and she had immediately backed off.

"Mother?" He stressed and her dark eyes lifted to meet his wide blue eyes, "you have a son?!" She remained quiet and expressionless and his mind went wild as he looked incredulously back to the boy to try and figure out how old he was. Much too old to have been born after she had chased Snow from this castle, "does Snow know about him?!"

Regina let out a quiet and bitter laugh, "why on earth would I keep that idiot girl updated on such personal matters?!"

"A male heir to the throne is something she has the right to know about!"

"She has no right to anything I-!"

"Mom stop!" Henry shouted as he came up to them and could practically feel that seething breath blown through her teeth despite her back being turned to him, "both of you! This isn't helping anyone!" He yelled and the adults kept their furious eyes locked on each other's, "just take a break and come back to it later," he suggested and looked up between the pair of them, a hand on each of their stomachs to keep them from getting any closer than they already were. Which was less than a foot and a half.

Neither queen nor shepherd prince made any gesture to move from the other and their hot glares remained unmoving as well. With a sharp breath of frustration out his nose, Henry looked between them again and then gave a harder push against his mother's stomach. It wasn't hard enough for her to step backward but it was hard enough to catch her attention and her dark furious eyes snapped down to his, a sharp reprimand on her tongue and an arm swinging to swat his arm from its brace against her stomach.

He held her vicious eyes with a stern glare of his own, something he had gotten better at over his weeks here with her. He held it unflinching and gently caught her swatting hand in both of his and held it still. She was furious and her breaths were sharp and her teeth were bared but as he softened his stern stare and began moving his thumbs in small soft circles over her tense hand, she began to come back down to him and relax to him. When her mouth and her dark eyes were more gentle than bloodthirsty, he spoke gently and squeezed her hand in reassuring affection, "just go take a break. We can try again later," he nodded and rested her hand against his chest.

Her fingers curled lightly in to his skin over his heart as though she were going to pluck it from his chest but the movement didn't faze him in the slightest. She did it often and he had learned that it was more affection and self reassurance than anything. In her mind if she could raise him, a boy with a golden heart, then there must be something salvageable in her own dark heart. Without a word or another glance anywhere but his chest, she turned and slipped her hand from his tender grasp so she could walk away. Her head held high and her steps strong and even.

He waited in silence with David for her to disappear from sight and once she had he whirled around with an expression of anger and protectiveness as he hit both hands against David's abdomen causing the man to take a couple steps backwards.

"Hey! What-!"

"What are you doing?!" He yelled and David gave a confused huff of air as he looked back at him with his brow furrowed and his mouth open a little, "you are supposed to help her! Not throw your own temper in her face!"

"She's the one-!"

"No! You don't know anything about her! Stop assuming you do! You have absolutely no idea!"

"Alright look, kid, I get that she's your mother and you feel connected and protective but are you seriously telling me that you have excused every life she has taken?! Every life she has hurt or destroyed?!"

"Yes I have! She hasn't killed anyone in years! She wants to be better!"

"Okay first of all I don't think it has been more than a couple weeks since someone has died at her hand and second; there is no good in that woman!"

"There is so much good in her!" He screamed and threw his tight fists at his sides, understanding now more than ever why it was so impossible for his mother in Storybrooke to so much as try to show her good side. "I have shown you how she really is! You saw it outside in the water, you saw it when you came back here, and you saw it just now when I calmed her down! She is good! You just have to stop throwing her evil title in her face and give her a chance to show you what she is really like!"

He huffed for breath and held David's stare without faltering. The man's jaw was clenched and and his stance was hard and almost aggressive but not quite and Henry's was no different. "My mom is good. She is good. She has done horrible _horrible_ things but she is so good."

With a long tired breath from his nose, David dropped down to one knee before the boy so he could look him straight in the eye. His voice was gentler now but it was still strong and firm, "kid I don't want to break this vision you have of her-"

"It's not a vision. It is who she is."

"-but I have seen her. She is not good. She has no good in her."

"You think I haven't seen her at her worst? She nearly killed me with her bare hands not all that long ago. I have seen her meddle, I have seen her harm people, I have seen her scream at people, I have seen her whisper in to her hearts, I have seen her turn men in to bugs and crush them beneath her foot, I have seen her in full on evil queen mode. But I also see something that no one else sees but me."

"That she's good?" David shook his head with an incredulous laugh under his breath. But the boy shook his head.

"No I see what happens after she does all those things. I see her at night when the sun is gone and no one else is around her. I see her cry. I hear her through the walls, I see her shaking and clawing at her hair, I see her throw things, I hear them shatter against the wall, I hear her screaming and wailing because she is tortured by all of this! But she does it all again the next day because she doesn't know how to stop! She's not strong enough to do it on her own. She needs someone to believe in her, to help her up when she hits the bottom again.

"You don't know her story, you don't know what has happened to her, you don't know how much she has lost. You have assumed, like everyone else, that she was just born evil. You haven't even thought to ask yourself why she is this way, have you? You haven't asked yourself what could have happened to her to make her this way. You haven't put any faith in Snow's claims that she is good and that she is not this evil witch. As a matter of fact you are only just starting to give her a little credit and that's after everything she's done for you!"

"That woman has done nothing good for me!"

"Well no not yet! But she does later!"

"What are you going on about? You keep speaking as though you are in the wrong timeline!"

"Well that would be because I am in the wrong timeline!"

"What?"

"That doesn't change the fact that my mom needs help! She is not the evil queen! She is broken and you are Prince Charming and-!"

"What do you mean you are in the wrong timeline?!"

...

"Go away, Rumple."

"I told you to get rid of the boy," he singsonged as he stepped along the top of the narrow railing she stood behind overlooking the forest, "and yet he's downstairs. Yelling at the Charming prince of sheep."

"Getting him home has revealed to be a more trying task than I previously believed," she deadpanned and relaxed a little in comfort as a cool breeze blew gently across her face.

"There are other ways to rid yourself of vermin than placing them back in their home."

"I will not kill him."

"Oh," he pouted and dropped down to sit on the railing so he was facing her, his back to the forest and his legs dangling over the floor of the balcony as he gave a sickening grin with his eerily playful voice, "why not?"

"He is a child."

"Hasn't stopped you before!"

"I have never killed a child! They have before died because of me but never directly beneath my fingertips and I do not plan to change that any time soon," she spat at him and then looked back out at the forest, her hands gripping tighter on to the railing.

"That boy is trouble, Regina," he warned, threatened really with a song to his words.

"Perhaps for you and your apparent plans," she retorted and turned her head to look at him with a bitter smile, "but for my purposes he is working out just fine."

"I will not hesitate to kill him if your games go to far, dearie!" He chimed with a mad laugh.

"I'm pretty sure you will hesitate after you find out who I am," Henry chimed in as he walked in to the space at the end of the hall. Rumple's eyes were on him immediately and the queen twisted prettily at the waist so she could look behind her and meet his eye.

"Oh and who _are_ you?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

"Is that so?"

"Mhm," he nodded and stopped at his mother's side.

Rumple studied the boy for a little while while he stood comfortably in his presence with a rather smug smile on his young mouth, "well it would seem as though I have a new project on my hands."

"Well then go busy yourself with it," Regina deadpanned and pushed him backward off the balcony and he let her with a shrill laugh, tipping backward and falling several feet before disappearing in a thick cloud of deep red smoke.

Henry looked over the balcony curiously and then looked back up to his mom to find her already watching him with big brown eyes. He smiled up at her and she didn't smile back but she wasn't scowling at him either. It was just a simple expression of nothing really in particular. "I talked to David," he started and she said nothing but turned her head away from him and looked back out at the forest, "I convinced him to give you a chance."

"And what did you tell him to convince him of that exactly?"

"The truth. Nothing personal though. You can tell him what you want to tell him. Or you can tell him nothing at all. But he's going to be more patient and not so...quick to judge," he stated and she raised her eyebrows up in doubt, "you have to try too you know."

"I did."

"Well you've got to try a little harder. And you've got to actually answer his questions, not beat around the bush like you used to do with me. We've talked about this."

"I do not wish to describe my torments in full detail to that man just because he asked."

"You don't have to. Just answer his question truthfully without any loopholed answer or just tell him you don't want to answer that question. That's all," he shrugged and she crossed her jaw as she stared out at the trees and that had him sighing and looking out there as well, resting his chin on his folded arms on the railing.

After long comfortable minutes spent in silence with Henry nuzzled right up against her side, he spoke up again, "can we still go riding?"

Regina hummed a soft laugh and nodded, "yes, Henry, we can still ride."

...

Regina stood outside the man's door wringing her hands together. It was absolutely ridiculous that she was so nervous to be in his company. She couldn't even identify what it was that had her so unnerved. He was a man like any other with an image of her like any other man would. Perhaps it was because she was trying to break that image of her he had and give him a new one.

But that was a silly reason to be so nervous.

Well...maybe it wasn't.

With a deep breath she knocked on the door and at his voice permitting her entrance, she opened the door and stepped inside. Her initial reaction had her scorning herself and making a note to find a way to distract Henry long enough for her to spend a little time with one of her playthings. Perhaps the huntsman. She really did favour him over the others. Henry had been stuck to her side day and night since he had arrived and she didn't think much on the consequences of that until now.

Now that there was a heat burning deep in her belly at the sight of him walking alongside his bed with only his pants and boots on. His brilliantly muscled chest, abdomen, arms, and back revealed to her eyes. Quickly though before he noticed, she pushed away her thoughts of physical entertainment and satisfaction. He was there to try and help her find her strength to keep from falling to the dark. He was not a toy, she had to behave.

"Oh. Regina. Sorry," he tried a smile but it was a hard thing to do in her presence. But he promised the boy he'd humour him, "I didn't think it would be you."

"Already making yourself at home and inviting company?"

Biting back a sharp remark and taking a small breath to clear his mind, he shook his head and changed his tone from the harsh one that was going to come on reflex, "no, no, just didn't imagine the queen would be knocking on my door after our last conversation."

Regina hummed in response and looked around the room as she walked a little closer to him and he watched her for a moment before turning his attention to the white linen shirt in his hands so he could pull it over his head, "why is it exactly that you are only half clothed?"

"What? You not enjoying the show, your majesty?" He grinned as he pulled his shirt down straight and was surprised to find a returned sense of humour sparkling those dark brown eyes and lifting those red lips in to a smile. He breathed out a light chuckle, pleased to find at least one method to get past that stoney and often vicious expression. "Two weeks in a dungeon does nothing good for one's hygiene and that bathtub was just calling my name. And you know a blade would be nice to get this scruff off my face," he nodded and brought a hand up to his jaw, "I was given a blade every now and then down there but it's due time for another one."

"Making demands of a queen now are we?"

"Just making her aware," he smiled and she breathed out a light laugh with a shake of her head. Alright so perhaps the boy was right when he said she would be different if he confronted her with a different attitude.

"Yes, well, I am here on other business."

"Oh? And what other business is that?"

"The boy is learning to ride and has requested you accompany us."

"Is that so?"

"It is."

David hummed shortly in acceptance and nodded as he looked up and off to the side. Then he thought he would give asking her a question a try. To see if this different approach to speaking with her would open up that ability a little more. The way she worked was starting to intrigue him. Which was something he did not expect, "what is going on with this kid anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is he really from this parallel future world like he says he is?"

"I have been convinced. As has Rumplestiltskin. I'm sure you will be too at some point."

"And this while mother and son thing?" He asked with a little more gentleness but then almost wished he had asked it a little gentler when her visible character became a little more defensive.

"That is incredibly complicated."

"Yes it is," he agreed quietly, allowing her to end the conversation there before he got them both riled up again.

Regina gave a sharp exhaled through her nose and crossed her jaw a little, before giving a kurt nod and clasping her hands in front of her below her waist, "will you be accompanying us or not?"

"I..." He hesitated and then after a pause he nodded, "sure," he supposed he may as well. If anything just to get some fresh air.


	6. Chapter 6

**don't have all ****that much to say right now, peeps! So enjoy the update! And please leave a review to let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions or scenes you would like me to write up for you :) don't be shy! I don't bite :)**

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With a huffed breath, Henry lifted the saddle up on to the mare's back and gently sat it there before pulling it forward just a little more. It wasn't exactly heavy but it wasn't all that light either. He was certainly getting stronger though and with each ride everything got easier. He had been riding every day now for the past couple weeks and was starting to get the hang of it. His mount was more than helpful to him as well.

Rocinante.

He was truly honoured to have been given the opportunity to ride her. He had heard much about her from his mother back in Storybrooke and to have the queen lend her to him now sent him over the moon with excitement and pride. The little mare was kind and gentle and patient, all of which were wonderful assets to him in his learning. Plus she was quite playful and that had him enjoying her all the more.

"Hey!" He laughed when she turned her head and stretched her neck so she could bump her soft muzzle against his neck and blow a warm breath against his skin. He shrugged his shoulder up and tilted his head to keep her from the ticklish area and pushed her head away with a laugh before he tightened the girth around her to keep his saddle in place. With his laugh still heard under his breath, he turned to go and take the mare's bridle from its place in the tack room but stopped when he saw David walk in to the stables.

"David!" He grinned and David looked back at him, curious of his enthusiasm, "you're coming!"

David nodded once and looked around the impressive stables before coming to a halt in front of the grinning boy and meeting his eye, "yes I am."

"That's great!" He cheered and then with a skip in his step he continued on to the tack room, "so I've got a few pointers for you so you don't set her off," Henry started and pulled the polished bridle from the wall and came back out in to the aisle and toward Rocinante with a glance at David.

"Oh?"

"Mhm. First," he nodded and put the bridle over the mare's face and as she took the bit in to her mouth, he pulled the leather bridle over her soft ears, "don't bring up anything about how Rocinante is not the grandest horse in the stable or how she stands out like a sore thumb when she's around all the other horses. She was mom's first horse. A gift from her father even though her mother completely disapproved. She learned how to ride on her and she is her favourite and if you say anything bad or imply anything bad then she'll have your head."

"Alright," David nodded and stepped up to the boy and the little mare as he finished buckling the bridle.

"Second; you can totally go right ahead and question her choice in her current horse."

"Oh? Why?"

"Because he's enormous and she's so little."

"She's not that little."

"Are you kidding?" Henry chuckled with a shake of his head and turned to look at him with a rather incredulous and amused expression, "she is just barely a head taller than me and I'm eleven years old! On what planet is that not little for an evil queen?"

David looked the boy up and down in disbelief, "she is not that little."

"She is! I'll totally prove it to you when she gets here," he laughed and David shook his head, his expression still comical, "she's shorter than Snow too actually. She just seems all big and scary to you guys."

David shook his head once again. There was no way that the queen was that much smaller than she made herself seem, "anything else I should know?"

"Don't mention that she's pocket sized," Henry shrugged and David closed his eyes and laughed quietly through his smile. Henry laughed with him and the laughter only faded when they heard the sound of hooves on cobblestone.

David watched in surprise and fascination as the woman sat easily upon the back of a truly enormous black stallion as he cantered up to the doorway in to the stable where she brought him back down to a walk. What he was surprised and fascinated by was that she sat upon his bare back rather than a saddle and there was no bridle on his head but merely his halter and his lead slung around his neck. And to her left was another horse who kept its gait identical to the stallion.

He had to assume the dark bay mare was the mount she had brought up for him and she was a mare with a beauty that indeed put the little chestnut Rocinante to shame but he did not bring it up as per Henry's instructions. The stallion she sat upon was an impressive beast to say the very least and the fact that she hadn't had her stablehands retrieve the horses for her brought a small smile to his face. And the fact that she had ridden bareback from the pasture rather than walking on foot had that smile staying in place.

She slid easily from his back and took his lead with her so he would walk beside her and the mare toward Henry and himself. He already had a little more respect for her and with the way things were going, he imagined soon enough he would even find it a little more difficult to pick a fight with her. But maybe not.

"Hi mom," Henry smiled and bounced over to her to wrap his arms around her.

Regina hummed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders in return, the lead of her stallion still in her fingers, "hello."

David watched the scene attentively and cocked his head a little at the gentleness the vicious woman now used. And then he noticed her height when she lifted her chin a little to place Henry's head beneath it and just as Henry had said, the woman was hardly a head taller than him. His height only an inch or so above her shoulder when she stood flat in her riding boots. When the pair parted his eyes followed Regina as she walked up to him and handed the rope that belonged to the pretty bay. He smiled and took the rope and then glanced at the stallion with a daring smile, "you sure he's not too big for you, your majesty?"

His smile only grew when a smirk curved her red lips and she started leading her horse away, "you couldn't handle him, shepherd," she retorted smoothly and he laughed quietly as she passed.

...

The ride had been relatively quiet and rather begrudgingly he found himself enjoying it. She had remained quiet save for the odd instruction to Henry or an answer to one of Henry's questions be it about the horse or herself or whatever crossed his mind. The boy had been chattering endlessly but David didn't mind. His stories were actually quite intriguing and his tales of the queen both in the present and supposed future were quite informative and interesting.

He found his gaze lingering on the woman in question more often than not during this ride. If he were speaking objectively and did not put in to account the previous knowledge of who she was, he would be shocked to learn that this woman was the evil queen. He would not believe that this beautiful gentle woman could ever perform the acts of the evil queen. She was no more than a woman laughing quietly while teaching a boy the correct position to put his body in if he were to take his borrowed mare over a jump.

He supposed learning this woman to be the evil queen was equally surprising as learning the evil queen was this woman.

This must have been what Snow had been trying to get him to understand. But it had seemed so incredibly far fetched that he only agreed with her as much as to make her drop the subject. Now he was thinking that perhaps he should have actually listened to her sooner and helped her get through to Regina if this was what the result was.

"Can we race?!"

"Next time," she smiled and Henry let out a small whine of protest, "and only if you are able to canter all the way back to the palace today without incident."

"Fine. But what about you and David?! You guys should totally race!"

"No Henry-"

"What? Afraid I will beat you?" David chimed in with a smirk and she turned her head and looked at him over her shoulder, the beginnings of a smirk of her own gracing those perfect lips while Henry chuckled quietly to himself.

"I have never lost a race."

"Well there is a first for everything," he smirked with a tilt of his head and she looked him up and down with a smile that threatened to show her teeth.

"Well then to soothe your burning desire to lose a horse race then I suggest the lake shore as a more suitable venue," she complied and turned her horse to the left toward the lake with both Henry and David following suit.

Henry was laughing quietly to himself and when he met David's eye he gave him a thumbs up and a grin but David simply stared at his hand in confusion and Henry laughed a little more. He supposed they didn't do thumbs up there yet.

...

Henry sat on Rocinante's back as she stood knee deep in the cool lake water, the both of their heads turned toward David and Regina a ways up the shore standing side by side waiting for his go. There was a finish line drawn in the sand and he and Rocinante stood in line with it to see who would be the winner if it came to a nose to nose finish. He was thrilled beyond comprehension that his mother had agreed to race. She was learning to have fun again and David seemed to be quickly getting the hang of her.

"Good luck, your majesty," he teased and she scoffed a laugh and nudged her stallion's ribs with her heel causing him to step quickly to the side and in to David and his mare. The collision had him laughing as he regained his mare's steady footing before returning the gesture and having the mare crash in to Regina and the black stallion. It had her laughing in return, a warm and beautiful sound that was paired with a wide and open smile that creased the corners of her eyes while she sat easily upon her giddy stallion.

"On your marks!" Henry called with his hands cupped around his smiling mouth to focus the sound in their direction, "get set!" He paused and laughed quietly and then yelled, "go!" And instantly they were hurtling down the shore toward him with sand flying up behind them from their horses' thundering hooves.

David let out a low chuckle at the thrill of his mare sitting back on her haunches to push herself forward for the take off and pulled herself forward with her front legs and continued faster and faster until her stride matched Regina's stallion who was throwing his head side to side with excitement and the joy of running. He was begging her to let him go faster and David knew that the moment Regina let him do just that, he would have no chance of catching her again. But that only made him laugh as he urged his pretty mare faster.

She forgot her character, she forgot about her walls, she forgot that she was the queen, she forgot that she was evil, she forgot that he was Snow's, she forgot that she wasn't supposed to enjoy his company, she forgot that he wasn't supposed to enjoy hers, she forgot everything except for the four legs carrying her faster than she had run in a long time and the team beside her that was trying to outrun her. She met David's eye with a wild grin and then threw her head back a little with a joyous laugh before she lifted her hands up her stallion's neck a little and hooked a finger in to his flying mane to assure him that he would not lose her from his back.

With that settled, he pushed himself in to a whole other gear and shot past David and the mare with his nostrils flared as wide as possible for his heavy snorting breaths. Regina didn't bother looking behind her as she sped down the shore toward Henry cheering on Rocinante's back but she could hear David laughing and trying to push his mare faster.

Henry hollered and cheered through his laughter as his mother crossed the finish line and David followed an entire two horse lengths behind her. He threw his arms up over his head and hollered once again before shouting, "that was awesome!" When he opened his eyes again and looked down the beach, she was cantering back to him through the water and David trotting in the sand but the both of them were grinning and laughing. This was going to work, his mother was going to be fixed this time.

...

Unable to sleep, Regina wandered the many halls of her castle. The moon was full and bright in the sky and because of it her home was filled with the soft light shining from it. As she rounded the corner to get to her favourite hallway she laid eyes on David who seemed to have found it as well. She contemplated leaving him be but decided against it and continued on her way toward him. She didn't say a word and her bare feet walked silently across the cool stone until she stopped beside him and folded her arms on the railing as she looked out at the forest.

He was startled by her sudden appearance. He hadn't heard her approach and he jumped just a little when he saw her suddenly come in to view out of the corner of his eye. She didn't pay any mind to it and didn't say a word as he stared at her. She simply kept her dark eyes on the forest. He looked her up and down for he still did not know what to make of her claim of wanting him to help her change for the better. He had seen something during that horse race. He had seen that pure joy and that spark of life in her dark eyes right before she had let out a thrilled and easy laugh before she took off and left him behind.

He wasn't yet convinced though of her own commitment and dedication to herself. She had so easily reverted back to her malicious character when they returned to the palace and something happened that she did not approve of. Each slip was followed by a displeased or angry look from the young boy which had Regina looking like a kicked puppy in response but it never stopped her from losing her temper again.

He didn't know if she could be saved. But he was curious if it could be done as Snow had always hoped.

With her appearance now she looked to be an entirely different person and it was actually rather confusing. She was still a stunning woman but with her long wavy hair left to fall to the middle of her back and her face clean of any makeup while she wore nothing but a charcoal grey silk nightgown that hit just above her knee and gathered around her breasts, she hardly resembled the queen he knew. Her posture was straight and proud but it was also more relaxed as she stood with her weight on one foot and the other leg bent ever so gently so her foot crossed over behind its weight bearing match.

What surprised him more than it should have was that she was strong. Soft lines in her arms defined her muscles just as they did in her legs and he felt free to assume her torso would portray the same. The night gown had thin straps over her strong shoulders and as his eyes followed the sharp line of her collarbone they stopped at the small pendant hanging off the delicate chain around her neck. It was a grand tree stencilled out of what looked to be white gold and the entire thing was circled with a circle of the same precious metal. It was such a simple and delicate piece of jewelry and it was one he was fascinated by for he would never have imagined she would wear such a thing.

Her face was soft in the moonlight and her skin seemed to glow while her eyes and hair appeared darker than ever. It offered a truly stunning contrast that kept his attention for a little while.

He could not conclude who this woman was. Malicious queen? Or gentle beauty?

"This is my favourite place in the castle," Regina interrupted the silence between them with her gentle voice and kept her eyes out on the forest. She was aware of him studying her but she didn't pay any mind to it, "I have always wanted to take a couple days and just walk through those trees and see what I could find."

"...why don't you?"

"With people constantly trying to kill me or raid my home?" She raised and eyebrow with a small laugh under her breath and then shook her head and listened to her voice drop regrettably, "I haven't the time. Nor do I wish to be constantly watching my back."

"Magic?"

Regina smiled and gave a short hum as she shook her head and looked to him, "you are missing the point," she whispered and his expression remained creased and rather guarded, "I don't want to have to use magic. Why would I wish to escape everything here only to bring it with me out there?"

"...escape?" An odd word choice he believed.

"What on earth makes you think I am happy here?" She inquired quietly and gently. When he gave no quick answer she shook her head, "I hate it here. It is my cage. I do not have a key, I am a pet. A pet who fools herself and everyone else in to believing she is in control. Sure it is a luxurious life but by no means is it the one I wanted or begged for. I would happily be the wife of a peasant rather than live out my days in this glorified prison."

David's brow was furrowed in intense confusion and he opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again. As he watched her look out at the forest he felt the gears turning in his head to try and figure out this woman, "you would give up your life as queen for a life as the wife of what? A stableboy?" He gave a random example in exasperated confusion and then watched as she flinched subtly and swallowed as she avoided eye contact. It wasn't a reaction to his tone because while it was frustrated and confused it was not by any means directed to the idea of it but rather his inability to envision such a powerful and regal woman wearing the clothes of a peasant. And doing it happily.

No it was a reaction indicating he could not have said a more true statement. His expression softened immediately and his eyes remained focused on her. His gaze dropped momentarily when he caught glimpse of movement in her hands. The thumb of her left hand moving subconsciously and subtly over her the side of her ring finger on the same left hand. He closed his eyes in a slow blink with a long regrettable exhale and when he opened them again he was looking at her face again but she kept her eyes out on the forest.

"What happened to you?" He whispered gently and nodded toward her and she smiled the most insincere smile and paired it with a single sorrowful laugh hummed through her closed lips.

"That is not bedtime story material, David," she shook her head with a well practiced smile and placed a hand on his upper arm as she moved away from the railing and started walking away, "I hope you find it in you to get a good night's sleep," she whispered kindly and let her hand slide over his arm until she walked past him and it fell back to her side before she clasped them both loosely behind her back and walked down the hall.

David frowned at his arm for a little while and then turned his head the other way to watch her leave. He felt his heart lurch out of his chest when she looked over her shoulder. He was certain she didn't intend to look the way she did, it was how she moved and how she walked. A slow sway of her hips with every step, her bare calves flexing softly as she walked on her tip toes just because she could, a dropped shoulder because of her hands and arms behind her back as she looked back to him, her long soft hair reflecting the moonlight, a small more genuine smile curling her soft lips and gently creasing the corners of those perfectly dark eyes.

When she turned her head back to watch where she was going, he cleared his throat and shook his head to try and clear that perfect image of her from his head and then began working on trying to rid himself of the ache in his heart her words had put there.

"Regina," he called quietly and looked her way again to see she had stopped and turned a quarter turn to look at him with a silent question in her eyes, "I'm sorry. For earlier. And for in the past...I should have given you a chance," he shook his head a little, hoping his voice would match the apology written in the lines of his face she was so carefully analyzing, "today you convinced me to stay and help. Whether you want me to or not," he held her eye for what seemed like forever before she gave a single small nod of her head and turned and continued on her path down the hall and away from him without a word.


	7. Chapter 7

**Again I apologize for the long wait! :/ it has not been a super fantastic few weeks for me lol! But here is an update for you all! I hope you enjoy it :) please leave a review letting me know what you think and what you would like to see in the future! **

* * *

**-Storybrooke-**

"Regina," Snow called gently as she walked in to the large home with Emma in tow. There was no reply so carefully they stepped in to the home and their eyes took in the sight before them. Books were everywhere. Open, closed, stacked, discarded. On the floor, tables, and chairs. Countless books everywhere and it caused a frown on both their mouths as they walked in further. At the sound of an angered screamed paired with the ruffling of pages and a loud thud of a book hitting the wall, both Snow and Emma cringed and paused before turning and walking toward the sound.

Regina stood bent over a table covered in old books from their land, flipping furiously through a new book's pages as her dark eyes read each page with a speed unheard of. She was as beautiful as ever even with her tousled hair and thinning figure. They all knew she wasn't eating properly, if at all. Hence the paper bag from Granny's with a chicken sandwich in it that Snow held in her hand, "Regina."

"Go away Snow," she singsonged irritably with a low and incredibly threatening growl to her voice as she continued flipping through the pages in front of her.

"We brought you lunch," Snow continued anyway with a gentle and worried voice that Regina completely ignored. Ignored until she was closer and placed the bag on top of a large closed book and placed one hand on the table and reached to touch her arm with her other, "Regina-" her gentle voice was cut off abruptly and replaced with a startled gasp as she leapt backward. Regina had spun around at the contact of her hand on her tense arm and she spun around with a sharp letter opener in her hand and stabbed it a good inch in to the heavy wooden table where Snow had had her hand placed but had pulled it back just barely in time.

"Regina!" Emma shrieked, her eyes wide at the uncharacteristically vicious motion. Yes Regina had a temper and yes sure she was considerably easier to set off since Henry had disappeared but to nearly stab a letter opener through Snow's hand?

"Do not touch me, Snow White," she seethed and sharply jerked the long slender blade from the wood. Snow's eyes were wide and her narrowly saved hand was up at her chest that rose and fell sharply with the rush of fear and adrenaline but Regina paid no mind and with a hard scowl still creasing her entire face, she turned back to her book.

"What the hell, Regina?!"

"Emma don't-" Snow tried to stop her gently having already forgiven the act and scolded herself for not knowing better.

"No! We are all worried for Henry! We all miss him! We are all trying to figure out a way to get him back home! We are not all trying to maim one another because of it!"

"Spare me the speech of righteousness, Miss Swan," she smiled bitterly, her voice tense with rage as she looked up at the blonde from beneath her dark lashes.

"He's my son too, Regina," Emma snarled back and pointed to her chest and Regina's smile grew all the more vicious as a low laugh was heard through her perfect white teeth.

"You know nothing, you insolent child," she hissed and Emma unwisely rose to challenge her, "you gave him away and you still believe you can just swoop in and act as though you have been there his entire life. You didn't want to know him, you didn't want to deal with him, you know nothing about him! You have hardly known him a year! You are a friend to him! By no definition of the word are you his mother apart from the fact that you dropped him on this earth!"

"I gave him up to give him his best chance!"

"And if he hadn't have come in to my care?! Please enlighten us all on how much you adored every single foster home that lent you their couch for a night!" She yelled furiously and Emma had no answer. Of course she didn't. Regina's voiced quieted to its normal volume but it only seemed to become more deadly, "I have raised him from a baby, I have seen him every day for the past eleven years, I know everything about him, he is the only person I love in my life, and now he is gone! You do not get to say anything, you don't even know his favourite _fucking_ colour! Now get out of my house or so help me I will burn you to a crisp right where you stand, you useless fool."

With a snarl still on her furious face Regina watched Emma step backward a few steps before turning around and walking out of her space. Snow on the other hand hesitated, a sympathetic look in her eye that made Regina's blood boil before she turned and quickly followed her without a word.

"Emma," Snow called after her as she closed Regina's front door behind her and then ran down the path so she could catch Emma's arm in her hand and spin her around, "Emma it's not true."

"Isn't it?!" She cried and pulled her arm from Snow's grasp and took half a step backward, "I don't know anything about him! I don't know his favourite colour! I don't know his favourite food or his favourite song or his favourite movie! Hell I don't even know his favourite superhero and he is always reading those comic books! I'm just here, Snow! Just floating around in this space! I don't have any idea what I'm doing! I don't know how to get him back and even if I did I know that the first person he would go running to would be Regina! I can deny it all I want but he will choose her over me! Any kid who was lost from home would run to the person they've known and loved their entire life! Not some woman they met a little over a year ago!"

"What's going on?" David asked worriedly, concern plain in his features as he walked up from the truck after watching Emma's frantic body language without any dialogue to be paired with it. He placed a comforting hand on her upper arm and she flinched away from him with a false laugh as she turned and walked away. He looked back to Snow with a silent question and she shrugged her shoulders up and folded her arms over her chest with a weak and worried smile.

"Regina's not handling this very well."

...

Regina hissed at the pages that gave her nothing and then threw that book across the room and she followed its path with her gaze only to have her dark eyes land on David standing in the doorway. She all but snarled at him before she slid another book in to place in front of her and opened its pages, "whatever has possessed the Charming brigade to keep entering my home without invitation."

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Why do you care?"

"Regina."

"Don't 'Regina' me, you-"

"How about the last time you slept?"

"Would you like me to keep a god damn journal so I can keep log of every step I take and I can hand it in to you at the end of every day?"

"Well I won't say 'no' if that's your chosen method. I'm sure I'll find it truly fascinating to read about every trip from one wall to the other in this room," he nodded and looked around the space, his arms folded over his chest as he stepped further in to the room and she laughed furiously under her breath.

"Well aren't you just hilarious."

He gave a short amused hum and stopped in front of her on the other side of the table and when she went back to ignoring him he let out a long irritated sigh, "Regina."

"Get out of my house, David," she snarled as she glanced up from another book and then went back to flipping through its pages.

David shook his head at her and she grew all the more irritated, "have you looked at yourself lately?" He asked gently with a worried tone lacing his voice that only seemed to aggravate her further, "Regina you look frail."

She gave a harsh scoff and looked up at him incredulously before going back to her book, "I am perfectly fine."

"We are not friends," he stated and leaned forward and braced his weight on the cluttered table with his hands and she raised her eyebrows as if to say in her most heavily sarcastic voice 'no? Really?', "I do not like you. But so help me, Regina, if you starve yourself to death I will crawl through the depths of _hell_ to bring you back here so Henry can have you," his voice was stern and almost angry as he stared at her through hard eyes and she stared right back at him.

A long and tense few seconds passed before Regina relented and reached forward to snatch the paper bag from Granny's off the table without breaking eye contact with David. He gave a curt nod and she gave a bitter smile with a cock of her head, "wouldn't want the charming prince putting it upon himself to disrupt me in the one place I should be free of him."

"I do hope you remember that," he nodded and she gave another harsh smile as she opened the bag with more force than what was necessary.

**-Enchanted Forest-**

"What is on your mind?"

"My mom..."

"This one? Or the one from your alternate universe?"

Henry gave a small breath of laughter out his nose and shrugged his shoulders, "both."

"Missing her?" David asked softly as he lowered himself down on the small cushioned bench against the wall. Henry sat with his back right against the wall and his knees up to his chest with his arms wrapped around them.

"Yeah," Henry whispered slowly and gave a weak smile as he met David's eye only to have tears form in his own. He turned his head away before they could fall and once he had buried his face in to his knees, he felt David's hand move slowly over his hunched shoulders in a gesture of comfort.

"Is she much different than the queen here?" David asked carefully and the boy shook his head and sniffed quietly as he lifted his head but didn't look him in the eye.

"No. Not really. She's still hot tempered but...I don't know she's just more settled. More...comfortable."

David nodded his head and kept a hand over the boy's shoulders but he still kept his teary eyes down and away from him, "I bet it's hard looking at someone you know so well, someone who should know you better than you do, only to see that they don't know you at all," he offered quietly and watched the first tear fall down Henry's cheek, "someone with the same face as the one you love most."

Henry nodded and rolled his lips in to his mouth as he dropped his head forward again so it was hidden behind his legs. His breaths were shaky and full of tears and while David's moving hand was comforting, it wasn't what he wanted. He wanted his mother. He wanted the woman who had remained with him despite his efforts to push her away.

After a few long moments of shared silence, Henry spoke quietly against his thighs, "she really is good you know."

"So you keep telling me."

"Because it's true," Henry stated surely but quietly as he lifted his face and looked at David, "you've seen little glimpses, you can't argue with that. And you can make her stronger, you can make her stay good."

"And you can't?"

"No. I'm just a kid."

"Fair enough," David agreed quietly and Henry nodded without another word. The both snapped their heads up when a set of hurried footsteps was coming toward them. One of the ladies in waiting. She was one of the younger ones. Pretty. And at times a little naive. Perhaps it is why Henry so easily managed to convince her to help him in his plans to rehabilitate the queen.

Henry cocked his head a little as she approached them with a worried expression. She didn't run but she was quite close to it, "Sarah? What's wrong?"

"Henry," she curtsied politely and did the same to David before turning back to the boy, "I am afraid her majesty has found herself in another episode of rage," she explained quietly and the boy frowned while the man sighed, "you requested I tell you should I come across her in such a state."

"Thank you Sarah," Henry smiled as best he could and she nodded her head in a small bow and risked a quick glance toward David for reasons unknown to his young mind, "can you take us to her?"

...

"How many imbeciles must I kill and replace before one of you fools gets it through your head," she cocked hers as she stepped forward and crushed a guard turned beetle beneath the toe of her heeled shoe, "that you do not come back here until your task has been completed successfully."

She walked forward with a snarl on her mouth and her eyebrows knitted together in her anger. One hand was on her hip and the other snatched forward and took a grip on his clothing around his neck and pulled him down to her level so she could look him right in the eye, "I want Snow White. Bring her to me. No more excuses," she hissed and her grip tightened as her jaw clenched with her bubbling rage, "should you return here without her, I will take that as a request for me to take your life."

With a flick of her fingers the third black guard behind the one in her grip fell to the floor with a cry of agony as both his legs broke beneath him. She watched his eyes flick down and to the side toward his fallen colleague but otherwise his expression remained steely. She could hear Henry calling her and she could hear footsteps running toward her but they were muffled by the rage pounding in her head. "Do you understand?" She forced out through her bared teeth and his grey eyes flicked up to meet hers.

"Yes your majesty."

"Good," she nodded with a cruel smile and sharply released her grip as she pushed him back up to stand at his full height. "Quit your mewling," she snarled at the black guard on the floor who was quietly writhing in pain. With another flick of her fingers his neck was snapped and hardly a moment later her arm was being yanked backward. She practically hissed and she tore her arm back and whirled around and bent forward so her eyes were directly in line with his.

"Stop it!"

"You do not get to tell me what to do, boy," she snarled as she stepped forward and Henry took half a step back.

"Stop hurting people!" He shouted back and she opened her mouth and took a quick breath to shook back some other harsh remark but Henry found himself being pushed aside and his place was taken by David. An act that only seemed to infuriate Regina further.

"Enough."

"What makes you think that I will bend to you, _shepherd_?" She pushed and he pushed back.

"Because we both know the boy is right. And you cannot push me away," he spoke sternly and strongly as he took half a step forward in to her space but she only rose to the challenge, "what are you doing?"

"I'm getting what I want."

"Oh is that what you're doing?"

"Yes."

"And what you want is to kill people at every turn?"

"I want your lover's head on a silver platter," she answered smoothly with that perfect rasp in her voice as she tilted her head with a truly cruel and conniving smile.

"And how many lives are you willing to ruin or take in the process?"

"As many as it takes," she growled as her top lip curled back and she rose up to get in his face.

"This isn't you."

"Are you sure? It seems to come rather easy."

"Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's correct. You are a coward."

"I am many things but a coward is not one."

"You are a coward and a blind fool," he snarled and pushed a finger against her chest hard enough to make her take a partial step back. A mistake he realized as he found himself spinning through the air and colliding harshly with the stone wall and falling to the equally unforgiving stone floor.

"David!" Henry shrieked as he watched his mother fling him through the air as though he weighed nothing. He was too shocked to move though as he watched her storm up to David as he grunted and began pushing himself to his feet. He didn't manage to stand up to his full height though before she had a hand wrapped around his throat and slammed him back against the wall.

"I do not take kindly to guests who forget their place, shepherd," she hissed and tightened her grip enough for David to cringe and grab at her hand.

"Mom!"

"Make no mistake. If the boy were not here, you would be dead," she snarled, her teeth bared and her eyes hard and cruel. Just as Henry had found it in him to run to her and take a grip of the skirt of her gown to pull her away from David, she released him from her deadly grip and he fell to the floor coughing as she spun around and stormed off. Malicious glares shot at her remaining guard and the young maid that had them quickly bowing their heads and avoiding her eye contact.

Henry watched her storm off for a moment before he dropped down to David's side. Once he was satisfied the man was going to live he himself lost his temper a little and gave the man a hard shove with both hands and an angry growl that had David looking at him in irritation and confusion as he tried to catch is breath, "why won't either of you two listen to me?!" He shouted and David rubbed his neck as he wheezed.

"What are you talking about?"

"You can't yell at her! It doesn't work! The Evil Queen doesn't back down from a challenge! You will lose every single time! You need to show her that you can care about her! You need to remind her what it is like to have someone who is there for her no matter what! So stop fighting with her!"

"I can't stop fighting with her! She is impossible!"

"She is not impossible! I am managing just fine until you blow everything up!"

"You're managing just fine because-!"

"Because I actually care about her!" He screamed and David let out a furious breath through his teeth as he pushed himself in to a sitting position, "I won our huge fight because I made it clear that I am here to save her from herself. Now you need to do the same."

...

David pushed open the heavy wooden door and closed it behind him with a rather inconsiderate thud before he leaned tiredly against it with a long sigh and held his gaze on her furious dark eyes. Her posture was as straight as ever as she turned her head to the side to look at him while her hands paused in their motion of draping what looked to be a folded blanket over her arm. Her mouth was set in a scowl and her eyes were hard and he was irritated and rather ill tempered as well. Which wasn't going to help either of them if this tactic didn't work either.

The boy had pounded in to his head that she did not respond well to anger and that he must try to be patient and kind with her. That he needed to show her another way, that he needed to be tender to coax her in to the light. One last try. If he didn't see results then so be it.

"Did you get lost, Charming?" She bit out with an absolutely vicious tone that was still so incredibly velvety smooth leaving her lips.

He clenched his jaw a few times and then let out another quiet sigh as he pushed himself off the door and began walking toward her, willing with every fibre in his being for the patience and kindness he needed. "I am at my wit's end," he smiled bitterly and she huffed an amused breath out her nose as she looked away from him and tossed the thin blanket from her arm on to a chair.

"I am starting to believe we will never see eye to eye," he shook his head and walked closer and she turned to face him, arrogance and untapped fire in her eyes and her smirk, "all we have done is try to tear each other apart when they boy is not the focus of our attention. And you are as stubborn as a fat blind mule," he gritted out and he saw that will to challenge and fight spark in those lovely eyes.

She didn't back down, didn't back away when they were inches apart and it was when he was that close that he changed his approach one more time, "however I have begun to wonder," his voice softened and her expression remained the same. Arrogant, daring, victorious, "when was the last time someone touched you," he finished with a quieter voice and when the backs of his fingertips gently moved along her cheekbone, her face fell in to confusion and she flinched away from his touch and stepped backward from him.

Her dark eyes were now softened and guarded and her lips fell in to a frown as her eyebrows fell together ever so slightly. The air around her changed instantaneously with his gentle hand. It went from tense and arrogant and powerful, to quiet and confused and...was that fear?

He stepped with her, encouraged by the change, and she stepped back again and again with her eyes searching him rather frantically for his motive. He continued forward without a word and with a fully renewed patience and sense of curiosity, only stopping when her back hit the heavy wooden post of her bed's canopy and his front was just hardly touching hers. Her breath was sharp and tense as she let it out in a long exhale and dropped her eyes while her hands moved behind her to dig in to the post that prevented her retreat.

"When was the last time a man loved you?" He asked quietly and she flinched away from the soft touch of his fingertips on her side but bumped in to his other arm that held some of his weight against the bed post. "Or the last time he held your hand just because he wanted to?" His voice was just above a whisper and her eyes were kept down as she swallowed and tried to control her breathing.

"What about the last time he held you as you slept? Or gave you a gift that mattered?" He questioned as he moved a fingertip along the line of her pretty collar bone. Her shaky breath blew across his neck and she tried to sink further in to the hard wood but other than that she didn't move or speak. "How about the last time he tucked your hair behind you ear," he started and she flinched and turned her head away from his touch as he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "and told you just how beautiful you are."

He frowned a little when he saw her eyes closed and a tear falling down her cheek but he did not stop. He took less than half a step closer so their bodies were actually touching and he felt hers quiver with the change and try to squirm free of him, "when was the last time his warmth and presence made you smile or put you at ease?" His voice grew softer and softer and she grew closer and closer to breaking in to helpless sobs.

She couldn't look at him and while this time she didn't flinch from his touch, she remained shaky and tears continued down her cheeks as his fingers followed the line of her jaw from its corner to her chin. He had found her. Found the broken woman beneath the mask that Henry had so adamantly assured him was there. She was beautiful and hurt and afraid. Which was what he had been told by the boy but hadn't believed until he saw it now before his eyes.

"When," he started with his voice even more soft and gentle than before as he moved his thumb softly and slowly over her bottom lip and her face creased with the saddest pain he had ever seen, "was the last time he kissed you and erased every worry you held?" More tears fell from her closed eyes and her lips parted ever so slightly to allow for her to suck in a better breath but his thumb remained on her bottom lip moving ever so slowly and softly.

"Get out," she pushed out in the saddest and weakest of whispers as his gentle touch pained her heart and his strong body warmed her soul back to life after she had buried them both deep to try to never feel this endless ache again.

He nodded once but she didn't see it and before he accepted her wishes, he dropped his head down a little lower and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. She quivered beneath him and her sharp breath blew across his ear at the gesture and as he pulled away he shook his head a little and she kept her teary eyes closed, "I do not want to fight with you, Regina," he whispered and moved his thumb over her cheekbone to wipe away some of her tears before he stepped away and turned his back to her as he walked to the door.

Regina felt her body convulse with a silent cry at the loss of his warmth against her and she tilted her head back and pushed it against the bed post so that if she were to open her eyes she would be looking at the ceiling. Her breaths were sharp and uneven and her fingers dug in to the dark wood as she tried to ground herself. But she was too far gone and Daniel flashed behind her eyes all the same.

David looked over his shoulder before he left and frowned a little more when he saw her. Clinging to the bed post, her head pushed back, and her chest rising and falling sharply with every pained breath. He left her with her privacy though and closed the door behind him as he left.

When she heard the door open and close she slowly spun off the post so her knees were against the edge of her bed and then turned one more time so that the backs of her knees were against the bed. A motion similar to rolling before she sat down on her bed and fell softly on to her side as she brought her legs up on to the mattress before she rolled over on to her other side and curled her knees up toward her chest. With her back now facing the closed door she finally let her quiet cries come to shake her body and hurt her throat.

David stood on the other side of the closed door and just stared at the marvellously carved wood. He could hear her crying. Soft and muffled through the heavy door, but he could pick it out all the same.

"You brought up Daniel, didn't you?"

David's brow furrowed at the name and turned his head to the boy who had the quietest presence sometimes. He didn't even know he was there. "Who is Daniel?"

"Was," he corrected quietly and David looked at him with more questions, "he was mom's stableboy. Before she had to marry the king."

David shook his head in confusion for it didn't make any sense why a stableboy would bring out such a sorrowful reaction. But then he remembered their conversation on the balcony a few nights prior and he remembered the touch she gave her left finger when he questioned her desire to give up life as queen to be the wife of a mere stableboy. He felt a small ache in his chest start to grow and he refocused his gaze on the door for a little while.

And as he turned and left he couldn't help but wonder what the queen looked like when she was in love.


	8. Chapter 8

**Myyyy liiiife is falling apaaaaaart hahahahahahahahahahaha! Enjoy the update you guys! I'm trying to finish the update for Catch Me as fast as I can :) happy Sunday! Finally the show is back! Woohoo!**

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_"When," he started with his voice even more soft and gentle than before as he moved his thumb softly and slowly over her bottom lip and her face creased with the saddest pain, "was the last time he kissed you and erased every worry you held?" More tears fell from her closed eyes and her lips parted ever so slightly to allow for her to suck in a better breath but his thumb remained on her bottom lip moving ever so slowly and softly._

_"Get out," she pushed out in the saddest and weakest of whispers as his gentle touch pained her heart and his strong body warmed her soul back to life after she had buried them both deep to try to never feel this endless ache again._

_He didn't leave though and her her breath was pushed from her lungs when he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. When his lips left her cheek he rested his forehead against hers and she drew in a shaky breath that may as well have been a cry, "please. Just g-" she was cut off with the softest of kisses and as her face twisted with heartache a small whimper was muffled against his mouth._

_He kissed her softly with one hand on her hip and the other still holding the side of her face and she slowly began to fall in to him while her tears continued to fall. Her hands slowly moved up his strong chest and as he swivelled his head, her hands found his neck and held him to her._

_Now who moved first, she couldn't say, but soon she was pulling at his shirt and he her gown. He kissed her neck as he pulled gently at the dark silk and she turned her head in to his, her eyes closed and her lips parted as she enjoyed his gentle touch. His mouth only left her skin when she pulled his shirt over his head and when he looked at her through those blue eyes, so kind and tender, she felt a tear fall down her cheek and she dropped her gaze to his mouth. Once more she felt his thumb along her bottom lip and then he was cradling her head and lifting it to meet him in another soft and slow kiss._

_Her hands rested on his sides and soon she found that her fingers were softly moving up and down his sides from the top of his ribs to the waist of his pants, memorizing and enjoying every rise and dip of his muscles as he kissed her in a way that made her putty in his hands. After unlacing the back of her dress he began sliding the fabric from her shoulders with such gentle fingers she found herself shivering under his touch. As her dress fell to the floor she stepped in to him and opened her mouth a little more as granted permission for him to further the kiss a little more as she wrapped her arms around his neck._

_A small and still rather sorrowful moan sounded from her as he kindly took her offer to deepen the kiss and his warm work calloused hands moved over her bare sides. It was she who stepped a little to the side and started bringing him down with her as she sat on the bed and he followed without hesitance and without changing his soft approach. She opened his belt and pants without breaking his wonderful kiss and as she started to crawl backward further on to the bed he kicked his remaining clothing to the floor and followed her on to the bed._

_After removing her panties he settled on top of her with one hands moving over her neck and through her hair while the other drew soft patterns over her thigh that had her shivering in delight. His soft mouth had her moaning quietly and his weight on top of her had her warm and relaxed while his hard length against her pelvis had her heart skipping in anticipation. Her hands roamed everywhere over him, feeling him, enjoying him, exciting her._

_Her breath caught in her chest when he lowered his mouth to her neck and slowly kissed lower and lower. He was kind to her, he was treasuring her, he was loving her and it put her right back on the verge of tears as his perfect kisses reached her breasts. She didn't want him any lower, she wanted his face over her own so she could busy her thoughts with him rather than what he was making her feel. She wanted back that tender air of lust he had created._

_She caught his head in her hands and with one last kiss below her sternum he followed her gentle pull. His eyes were so blue and so understanding and she hated the tear he wiped away with his thumb as he smiled that small and incredibly kind smile before he dropped his head and kissed her again. Long and slow._

_Still emotional but wanting more, she began slowly rocking her hips beneath him and he gave a long quiet hum against the corner of her jaw and placed a hand on her hip to keep her steady. He kissed her neck and her jaw as he slowly pushed himself inside her and she pushed her head back in to her pillow with a choked breath and a long moan as her fingers dug in to his back._

"Mom," Henry called quietly and she turned her head as she took a sharp breath in and her dark eyes flashed open. She then proceeded to look around her bed and then the room and herself as she slowly sat up, "you okay?"

"...yes..."

"You sure? You were moaning in your sleep a little bit and now you're crying," he nodded toward her and she furrowed her brow in confusion and brought her fingertips to her cheek.

She was only further confused when her fingertips met a wet tear on her cheek and she pulled them away to examine the wet gloss to them now. "It was just a dream, Henry," she answered quietly and then closed her eyes and sunk back in to her bed on her back to try and erase the images of the vivid dream from her mind.

With a frown Henry cocked his head and after a few seconds of watching her troubled expression he climbed up on to the bed with her. He slipped beneath the heavy blankets and snuggled himself right up in to her side, his head on her chest and his arms around her middle. Her skin and her dark blue silk nightgown were soft against his cheek and hands and he let his eyes fall shut when her fingers started combing through his hair and her other hand reached over her a little to hold his forearm over her stomach.

"What time is it?"

"Late morning. You're usually up with the sun and I could find you anywhere. So I came to check here just in case."

"Hmm."

...

David turned to the window as he finished folding and rolling his letter up as small as he could and then looped a small string around it to keep it secure as he whistled for a bird. Just as he finished tying it a smokey grey pigeon perched itself on the windowsill and he smiled as he picked up the bird and moved to tie the message to its leg. Only the small rolled message was snatched from his hand before he could tie it, "hey!"

Regina looked at the rolled paper between her thumb and finger and then to David, "what is this?"

"A message."

"To whom? Your perfectly delightful flake of snow?" She raised her eyebrows with a subtle shake of her head.

"No of course not, I'm not an imbecile."

"Oh I beg to differ."

David sighed irritably and pushed his hand forward for her to put it back in his hand, "it is a message to my mother. Telling her not to worry and that I am perfectly alright."

"Why does she care?"

David furrowed his brow and shook his head at the odd question and Henry rolled his eyes behind Regina at his confused reaction. Clearly he was missing something but he didn't know what, "she is my mother, why wouldn't she care to know of my safety?"

"Hmm," Regina hummed shortly and turned eyes back to the tightly rolled parchment. And then she started opening it.

"What are you doing?"

"Reading it?."

"That's private, Regina!" He raised his voice irritably but she didn't seem to care and continued on her way. So he tried to snatch it back but she poofed away and reappeared behind him.

"Surely if it does not concern me then you would not have such issues with me reading it."

"It doesn't concern you!"

"Then why such hostility?"

"Because I am hiding her from king George and I don't need anyone knowing about her except me!"

Regina paused her movements now that the letter was open but she did not read it. She held David's eye and tried to figure out where such ferocity came from when it occurred between a mother and her child and a vice versa.

"Oh...crap..." Henry broke the tense silence with a small cringe and when David turned around to face him, Regina watched his back for a moment or two and then began reading the letter.

"What?"

"I forgot about king George."

"And?"

"That you were too late to...save your mom..." He winced a little and David blinked and shook his head.

Regina looked down at David's neat and tidy scrawl and read it without much of a care, her dark eyes moving quickly and easily across the paper.

_Mother I am writing to tell you that I am alright. I unfortunately will not be able to visit you for some time for I am caught up in something important and am unable to leave. I am safe and I am well, there is no need for you to worry. Please stay out of sight._

_I love you dearly. Stay safe._

_David._

Her brow furrowed at it for it indeed was exactly what he had said it was. A letter to his mother assuring her of his wellbeing. She flipped it over to inspect the back but found nothing so she then held it up to the window to check for any hidden message but again found nothing. So she looked at the message again in case she missed something. But her full attention was caught by Henry's voice when it claimed David's mother would die.

"You don't know that."

"I do," Henry cringed quietly and David let out a long stressed breath and pushed a hand through his hair, "he knows where she is, he's known for awhile and is just waiting for the right time to follow through. I don't know when that is going to be though anymore because I've taken us so far from the original timeline."

"When did it happen in your world?" He forced out through his tight jaw.

"After my mom put Snow under a sleeping curse and after you broke that curse. You proposed to Snow and then there was a huge battle to overtake the throne from my mom. You were retreating from a surprise stealth attack from king George's army and told Snow that you'd meet her at the cabin with your mother. You got there in time to fight his men but you missed the archer that shot a poisoned arrow over her heart..."

Regina's eyes flicked from Henry's face and to David's rigid back. There was a tense silence that hung in the air that only broke the moment David spun on his heels and tried to storm off but was stopped when she stepped in front of him and placed a firm hand on his chest, "stop."

"Get out of my way!"

"I will not!"

"I am free to leave am I not?!"

"Yes of course," Regina answered irritably, "I am true to my word."

"Then let me pass!"

"Take me with you."

"What?!"

"You heard the boy. You are not successful on your own."

"I am not taking you with me!"

"Risking your mother's safety over your trust in me?"

...

He knew that their mission was one of urgency and not one he should be smiling about but he couldn't help the smile that pulled at his mouth as he galloped side by side with the queen. It was exhilarating and freeing. The horses hooves pounded against the forest floor and the air sped past them as did the trees. He hadn't been trusted to go at a full gallop until now and he was loving it. His mother turned her head to check on him once more and she smiled at him as he laughed when Rocinante leapt smoothly over a log in her path.

His favourite part though was racing through the river. The cool clear water spraying up around him and soaking him to the bone as Rocinante worked hard beneath him to get him across water that was up to her chest. The horses were growing tired after a few hours of galloping and cantering with small walk breaks in between but they kept going without complaint or hesitation when asked and soon enough they were galloping down the well hidden road to Ruth's secret cabin.

David leapt off his bay mare before slowing her to a halt and Regina did the same from her stallion which had Henry promising himself to learn the same trick and mastering it before he returned home to Storybrooke.

"Mother?!" David yelled as he sprinted toward the cabin and Regina started searching the property for George's men, "mother?!"

"David?!" Ruth called back as she ran from the house toward his voice, "what is-?!" She was cut off by his strong arms crushing her in a hug as he whispered incoherent words to himself, "David what is going on?"

"You're safe," he whispered and hugged her tighter as she hugged him back.

"Of course I'm safe, dear. Why wouldn't I be?"

"David!"

He shot around at Henry's panicked voice to find Regina reaching and then catching an arrow out of mid air right next to his head where Ruth's had been resting on his shoulder during their hug. His breaths were sharp and his eyes were wide as he stared at the arrow in Regina's smooth hand and his surprise was not all that affected when Regina scorned him.

"You mean to tell me that we rode all the way here to save her from this arrow and you turn your back to the trees to let it happen, you god damn _fool_!" She waved the arrow in front of his face and he stared at it wide eyed.

Ruth shook her head at the woman, her eyes wide as well as recognition brought the woman's name to her tongue and the arrow caught in her hand confused her further, "you're the queen."

Regina spared her a glance and then looked back to David and whacked him upside the head with the feathered end of the arrow causing him to hiss and put a hand up to his head, "you damn twit. It is a true wonder to me how you haven't gotten yourself killed yet," she snapped and flung the arrow in to the ground so it's poisoned point stuck in to the soil and she returned to gathering her previously magically frozen knights in the trees and bushes around the small clearing.

David watched with his mouth still slightly agape as she moved her hands and lifted king George's frozen men in to the air and gathered them all in the middle of the clearing. The archer included. "Thank you, Regina," he breathed out and she looked halfheartedly over her shoulder with half a nod and then continued with her floating group of men. "I'm serious, Regina," he shook his head and let go of his mother so he could walk up to her and turn her around. She did so with a sigh and irritated shift of her weight but she did turn at his touch and looked him in the eye.

"You saved her life and you didn't have to. Thank you," he nodded and she nodded once more.

"You're welcome," she replied and when he stepped closer she scrunched her face and leaned away, "don't-" she pushed an irritated sigh out her nose and rolled her eyes when his arm wrapped around her, "hug me."

David breathed out a light chuckle in to her dark hair at her irritation and held her anyway. She was rather nice to hold and she smelled incredibly good this close but he did let go of her before he lost his arms to her magic. Henry was laughing quietly from beside Rocinante and David couldn't help but laugh with him when Regina shot the boy a disapproving look.

"What?" Henry laughed and raised his hands up and to the sides as he shrugged his shoulders in innocence.

"Keep laughing and I'll have your tongue, boy."

"No way! I'm calling your bluff! You _like_ talking to me," he grinned with his tongue between his teeth as he laughed.

"Oh just go gather the horses," she waved him off and he turned with a laugh to go do as he was told and she turned her attention back to George's men.

Ruth watched wide eyed at what was going on before her and when David came back to her she shook her head and whispered quickly, "what is going on, David?"

"It is a very long story, mother."

"I don't have anything else to do," she shook her head, her words quick and panicked as she tried to make sense of it all.

"I'll explain everything once we are safe back at the queen's ca-"

"I don't want to go to the castle, David! Tell me what is going on!"

"Mother-"

"I captured your son with every intention to use him against dear Snow White. However before I could put my plans in to motion I was convinced by that boy to wait for he had other plans for me. He then convinced me to let your son out so he could convince him to aid him in his plans for me as well and he succeeded. The topic of yourself was brought up this morning and the boy remembered a vital piece of information regarding you dying a slow death by George's men via their poisoned arrow to your chest," she interrupted David and David put a hand over his eyes and shook his head while the older woman gaped at her, her eyes wide and confused.

"What else...yes Henry is from what seems to be a parallel universe set rather far in the future," she nodded and Ruth remained silent, "I believe that's it."

"Mom," Henry laughed and shook his head as he walked up to them and Ruth shot her eyes down to him.

"Oh yes. In that parallel universe I am his mother," she nodded and smiled and the older woman looked back up at her in disbelief, "really it's not so much a long story as it is one that is difficult to believe."

When no one said anything more she nodded and clapped her hands together, "so now that that's out of the way shall we get out of this forest?"

"Regina I don't want those men reporting back to George as to what's happened here."

"Understood," she nodded and Ruth looked between her and David in confusion, "Henry, my boy, eyes forward."

"Okay," he quickly turned his back to the men floating in the air and made sure he had all three sets of reins still in his hands and that three different coloured sets of four legs were beside him.

David watched Regina's hands move in a gesture and then there was a small pause to seal the spell before she quickly pulled her hands away from one another and David's eyes moved to the men just in time to see the bundle of them sliced in half right through their waists. Like a wire cutting through a block of soft clay it had been wrapped around. He cringed at the image and placed a hand on Ruth's back when she yelped as the bodies fell to the forest floor in sets of legs and torsos.

Henry frowned but kept quiet. He understood why David asked it of her and he knew his reasons were fair. They needn't be endangered by word of mouth. Didn't mean he liked that his mother could kill so easily. A few moments later he found himself standing on cobblestone and when he looked around he recognized the palace stables and with a smile he turned toward it and talked quietly to the three horses he led behind him.

Regina watched Henry leave with the horses and a small and pleasant smile graced her lips as she did. Such a good boy. However when she turned her attention back to David and Ruth her smile was replaced with a small frown. Ruth was frazzled and reasonably so and David was trying to soothe her. What she didn't appreciate was that she could not decipher Ruth's expression whenever the woman looked her way.

It wasn't one of anger or fear or disgust but nor was it one of kindness or understanding or acceptance. Not even worry or caution. It was unreadable and Regina didn't like that.

With David and Ruth distracted, Regina examined her hand slowly as she cocked her head. The same hand that had snatched the arrow from the air. David was right. She didn't need to do it. Under any other circumstances she likely wouldn't have either. The woman was of no importance to her, she didn't know her, had never seen her before that moment, why did it suddenly matter to her if the woman lived or died?

It was frustrating to not have an answer. What had changed? Why did she demand to go with David in the first place? What possessed her to do such a thing? Was it because of that bizarre dream that even still had her stomach flipping and twisting with a need for him? Her mind was changing and she was no longer in control and she hated that. This whole day was proving to be just horrible.

"Regina," he called again a little sharper after she ignored him the first two times and her dark eyes snapped up to his in a threat to call her name in that tone again. It only had him smiling a little and holding back a lighthearted chuckle as she lowered her hand from her eye level, "what would you like us to do now?"

"I suppose your mother would like to get settled in a room," she offered but it wasn't really a question. She was turning to lead the way before David had finished his single nod of agreement.

**-Storybrooke-**

"Regina?" David called as he walked in to her home. He received no answer which wasn't at all surprising but what did concern him was that the house was silent. There was not a sound to be heard. No flipping of a page, no incoherent mumbling, no books being thrown, no angered scream, just nothing. He didn't think he had ever heard the home so quiet.

"Regina?" He called again with a frown as he checked the study only to find it to be empty. He walked further in to the room anyway though with a deeper frown for there were no books left open. There weren't even any on the table. They were all stacked on the floor in haphazard towers and none were on the table waiting to be read. She must have searched through them all.

He checked the kitchen next but didn't find her there nor did he find her in the living room. After searching the main floor he walked upstairs to look for her there. He had never been upstairs before and he felt like he was intruding but he wanted to find her and make sure she was okay. He had been nominated to be the one to check up on her most often because it seemed he was the only one she would listen to. That and he put up with very little of her shit.

He walked down the hall to what he guessed to be her room and was proven to be correct but he didn't find her there either. Didn't stop him from looking around a bit though. He wandered around the room and in to the bathroom, touching different bottles of different thing, looking at photographs of her and Henry and some of horses, smiling at things he found here and there that made her seem so incredibly human like the rest of them. Like the collection of pretty coloured sea glass in a small jar on a shelf next to a stack of books by Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë.

The sight had him breathing out the softest laugh and he turned and left the room in search of others she may be hiding in. The next one he opened was merely a linen closet but the one after that he discovered to be Henry's room and fast asleep on his bed was the evil queen herself. She was on her side with her knees pulled up a little, her face half buried in to the blue pillow she hugged so closely in her arms.

He shook his head at her with a sad smile and walked up to the side of the bed. He didn't want to wake her so he didn't touch her but he couldn't help but study her and the longer he did the deeper his frown became. She had dark bags under her eyes and her cheeks showed signs of dried tear tracks. Her face seemed to be sharper, her cheekbones more prominent with the loss of what little fat she had on her body before she lost Henry and stopped eating. Her skin was paler than it should be and her clothes fit a little looser than they used to.

With a frown still on his mouth, he moved to the foot of the bed and slowly and gently pulled the stilettos from her feet and placed them on the floor before he unfolded the extra blanket draped over the corner of the bed and carefully placed it over her sleeping figure. With one final look over her he left the room silently and walked down the stairs and in to the dining room before calling Snow to tell her he was going to stay until she woke up so he could make sure she would at least eat.

...

It was a full day and a half later when she finally stirred awake. The movement of her drawing in a deep waking breath and nuzzling her face deeper in to Henry's pillow brought David back from his thoughts and when those remarkable dark eyes tiredly blinked open and focused on him sitting in a chair he nodded and gave half a smile and a quiet, "hey."

Regina didn't smile in return. Instead it was her usual half scowl that seemed permanently fixed upon her mouth whenever he was near. Although he was not convinced of its colder nature when she remained groggy with sleep while hugging her son's pillow.

"What time is it?"

David looked down at his watch and read it out to her, "five forty three," and then he looked up at her with a longer sigh, "on Thursday."

"I never know what day it is anymore. I haven't been bothered to keep track."

"Well that's not like you," he stated plainly and she closed her eyes and turned her face back in to Henry's pillow, "I came to check on you yesterday morning but found you asleep. You haven't woken up until now," he explained but she didn't move. She hadn't fallen back asleep and she had heard him but she didn't react. "Regina you need to take care of yourself. You need to eat, you need to sleep, you need-"

"What are you doing here, David?" She cut him off tiredly, her irritation and exhaustion clear in her voice as she opened her eyes again.

"Making sure you don't let yourself die. We need you, Regina."

"Yes of course you do. You need me. But as soon as I get you what you want I am cast aside without so much as a thank you or a recognition. I am nothing to you people until you need me."

"That isn't true."

"Give me one example where it hasn't applied and I will take it back," she offered quietly and he opened his mouth to give an example but closed it again soon after, "hmmm," she hummed indifferently and looked him up and down and then closed her eyes once more.

With a frustrated sigh David rubbed his hands over his face and leaned forward in his chair so his elbows were on his knees and his hands fell limply in front of and between his legs. "I don't know what you're going through, Regina. I can only guess at what you're feeling. I'm not going to try and claim otherwise. I do not know the hurt of losing a child like this," he shook his head and her eyes remained closed but her brow twitched in to grief the longer she listened.

"You took Emma from us. You took her from me. But I never truly felt the loss. I passed out moments after I put her in the wardrobe and then we were cursed and then I was in a coma. When the curse was broken my little girl was standing right in front of me. I had missed her life, I had missed her growing up, but I never had the time or the mindset to...feel the loss, to feel the hurt. She was leaving my arms one moment and the very next she was standing in front of me taller than her mother.

"However you have spent every waking moment with Henry for the past eleven years and now he is gone. I am not going to pretend I know I know what that feels like. I don't want to. He is my grandson and I love him incredibly but I am not going to tell you our ache over his leave is the same for I know it is nowhere near it. He is your son, Regina. You are his mother and we will no longer disregard that fact. I know you will not accept my apology for the others but I apologize for my behaviour. Henry is your son and it was cruel of me to ever say and act otherwise," he shook his head a little with his sincere apology and those time stopping dark eyes slowly opened once more.

"Yes it was."

He shook his head again at her smooth and plain tone with her eyes held his, "I'm sorry, Regina," he frowned and gave his head one last shake, "it wasn't fair."

"No it wasn't."

Silence hung in the air for awhile. It was a silence that made him feel all the more guilty. Sometimes that woman made them seem like were so completely simple in the head. after several more seconds of silence David stood up and Regina watched him, "get up and have a shower. I'll make you something to eat," he nodded and she rolled her eyes and let them fall back shut as he was turning away to do just that.


	9. Chapter 9

**another update! Look at me go! fingers crossed I can keep up the pace! Hahahaha! Enjoy! And please leave a review letting me know what you think or what you would like to see :) **

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David walked toward Regina's bed chambers with a relaxed smile. He had every intention now to stand by her. She had saved Ruth's life. She had given them the resources to get to her when they couldn't use her magic to get to her, she had plucked the lethal arrow from the air during his lapse of judgement and attention, she had eliminated any further threat for the time being in gathering and killing every one of George's men, and she had given her a safe place to stay with anything and everything she could ask for.

There was indeed good in her. And he was now fully devoted to bringing it out for everyone to see. He felt good about it too. Like when you know you've made the right choice and your chest seems to swell with pride and warmth.

His smile only faltered when he saw through her cracked open door, a man slamming her against the back of the bedpost at the foot of her bed and closest to the door kissing her with just as much ferocity as she gave. His brow furrowed ever so slightly as a small frown tugged the corners of his mouth as Regina clawed at the black guard of her choice and he kissed her open mouth in a way that had her making a sound that shot right to David's gut. That perfect mixture of a moan and a whimper.

As the man tugged Regina's long riding coat from her arms and left her in her black leather corset and black riding pants and boots, David felt an irrational dislike for the man growing a burning heat low in his belly. He could only call it jealousy and that was confusing in of itself. He had no reason to be jealous of her plaything. No right to be jealous either. She wasn't his and he had Snow.

And yet the jealousy bored deeper and deeper in to him. He turned from the door when the guard lifted her and threw them both on to the bed. He wasn't angry at her however. Merely jealous that she was with another man. Which he knew was ridiculous.

...

Regina sat on the edge of the bed with her eyes glazed in thought. She was furious. But her expression didn't show it. She had never felt so unsatisfied after having sex with her huntsman. Especially after having such _good_ sex. She couldn't even blame it on him. He just wasn't...enough. And that was infuriating.

Screwing her huntsman always put her in better spirits and after the dream she woke up from that morning, she needed to get her mind on someone else. He had. But now that they were done, the dream of David came back stronger than before. Every soft touch, tender kiss, loving look, all of it. As clear as a memory rather than a murky recollection of a dream.

She was abruptly snapped from her thoughts when a soft kiss was placed on her shoulder and his hands held her bare waist as she sat up straight having been leaning forward over her clothed legs. Her brow furrowed as his softer kisses continued up her shoulder and her neck, "what are you doing."

"I may not have my heart," he whispered against her neck and placed another kiss below the corner of her jaw, "and I may have spent a great deal of my time with wolves," a kiss on the edge of her jaw, "but I do believe a woman as beautiful as yourself deserves to be treated as such a treasure from time to time."

Regina frowned even more at his quiet answer as he kissed his way back down her neck and his slow warm hands caused goosebumps to raise on her soft skin. "I am in no mood, huntsman," she scolded halfheartedly and she felt him smile against her skin before he lifted his head and met her eye.

"I believe that to be a lie," he whispered and her dark eyes flicked between his own. When she said nothing else he moved in and kissed her slowly and she kissed him back only as much as she had to and nothing more. He pulled away and rested his chin on her shoulder, waiting for her reaction and he wasn't surprised by it at all when it finally came.

"You have put me in a foul mood, huntsman. I suggest you leave," she stated with a low voice that was verging on deadly.

"As you wish, your majesty," he agreed with one final kiss to her shoulder before he turned away to continue dressing himself. Entirely unaffected by her denial of his offer.

She didn't want him. She didn't want the huntsman. For whatever reason something had possessed her mind with the idea of wanting David. Of all people. David. Absurd.

...

David stood leaning forward against the railing as he overlooked the sun setting on the forest through the impressive expanse of glass that made up the one side on the hall. The same hall he and Regina had spoken in a few nights before. He quite enjoyed this hallway and the spectacular view it lent. He knew Regina did too and that at some point this evening she was likely to come here as well.

Just as he was thinking of the complicated brunette he turned his head toward the sound of footsteps and saw her coming down the hall toward him, "hey," he greeted with a smile and she scowled at him before looking out at the forest, stopping a good several feet from him. She didn't say a word and made a point not to look at him and under normal circumstances he probably would have turned and let her be. But now? Now he was just as determined as Henry to mend this woman.

"What's on your mind?" He smiled a little and moved so his side was against the railing. He received no answer, not even a blink or a clenching of her jaw as she stared out at the forest. So he stepped closer to her and stopped when she turned her head to look at him when he was only maybe two feet away. She scowled at him and he looked her up and down and questioned lightheartedly, "what has you in such a bad mood?"

"You do."

"Me? Why?" He shook his head with a small laugh and she looked back out at the forest with her jaw crossed. He tried to recall anything he had done that day to upset her but nothing came to mind, "what did I do?" Silence. So he took one step closer because that seemed to be the only thing that gave him a reaction. And it did. She took a step sideways to get away from him so he paused his movement for a couple seconds and then took another step. It set her off and she hissed out a breath as she pushed herself from the railing and tried to walk around him.

"Regina," he caught her arm and she tore her arm away and screamed at him, catching him completely of guard.

"I am furious with you!"

"Why? What have I done?"

"You're changing things! You're changing me!"

"Regina-"

"I had a purpose before you came along! I had something to work toward! And now I don't know what I'm doing! I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing!"

"Well what about what you _want_ to do?" He questioned, not taking her sudden rage personally. But she didn't answer his question. She thought about it for a split second but then changed her mind and didn't give him her answer.

"You're in my mind and you won't leave! All I can think about is you! I can't enjoy anything because all I can think about is you!" She shouted and felt her throat start to tighten, her stress and emotions all bubbling to the surface at once, "I want you out of my head!"

He was just going to not mention that he knew exactly what enjoyment she was referring to. And he was also going to try and not let that feed his pride and status over whomever he had seen with her in her bed chambers.

"You ruined me with that stunt you pulled last night!" She screamed furiously and felt those tears fight to come to her eyes again as she unintentionally recalled his gentle touch over her skin and her lips.

Realization hit him hard and guilt knocked him square in the chest as he shook his head, "Regina I am sorry for that, my intentions were never to hurt you."

"What the hell were they then?!"

"They were to get you to remember a different time, a time when-"

"I don't want to remember, David!" She screamed and leaned forward and he tilted his head and opened his mouth to speak, "that isn't something someone wants to remember when the ending is always there to haunt you!"

So many questions came to mind at her incredible distress and her pain seemed to flow from her and ache in his heart, "Regina you have to know I did not intend to bring up Daniel. I-"

"Who told you his name?!" She roared, her sorrow momentarily replaced with rage.

"I-the boy, Henry, when I came out of the room with you he asked if I had brought up Daniel and I put the name to the stableboy I had mentioned the last time we spoke in this hall. The way you flinched and the touch you gave your ring finger, you were to be wed. Weren't you?" He asked gently with his brow furrowed in sorrow and he had never seen her so angry. He supposed he couldn't blame her. She wasn't a woman who appreciated being known without her permission.

"You don't get to know my story," she gritted out furiously through teary eyes but none had yet fallen, "I am not going to tell it, I don't _want_ to tell it!"

"What _do_ you want?!" He rose his voice in to a booming yell to set her off again and set her off it did.

"I want to be happy!" She screamed and looked him up and down, her lip curled back to show her white teeth but once again her rage was being mixed back in with her broken heart instead of burning in her eyes, "I want to be loved! But no one! _No one_ could ever love me! _No one_ loves the Evil Queen!" She yelled at him and then they both fell in to silence while she tried to steady her breaths. She hated the way he was looking at her. Hated it because it was how she wanted him to look at her but she didn't want to want him.

She wanted those kind eyes and that gentle mouth, she wanted that understanding and honest expression, she wanted that welcoming aura around him, she wanted to be grounded by strong warm arms, but she didn't want it to be him. She couldn't have him.

She could feel the tears threatening to fall and she could feel her rage starting to wither away and drown in her pain and heartache but she wouldn't dare let him see it all. She closed her eyes in a slow blink and felt her mouth soften in despair as she turned around and hurried away from him. She pushed her hands through her hair and put a small hurried skip in her step as she rushed away with the length of her riding coat flowing and twisting behind her.

When she opened her eyes and dropped her hands from her hair her eyes happened upon Ruth who was standing of to the side in the archway in to the glass sided hall. Her expression was still indecipherable but Regina did catch a flash of compassion in the older woman's eyes that had her tears falling before she could pass her.

...

Yes Ruth had followed her. She found her halted outside beneath a beautiful apple tree as the sun set below the horizon and painted the sky with various oranges and pinks. Her back was to her for she was on the far side of the tree with her focus out on the dark forest and setting sun. Ruth stood back in silence and only approached when the queen sat down on the small white wall around the tree did she start to walk toward her.

She was bent over and her shoulders were shaking with her silent cries in to her hands but Ruth didn't speak a word about it and silently sat down right next to her. If the queen knew of her presence she didn't acknowledge it and Ruth didn't quite know what she was dealing with. But she placed a careful hand on the woman's knee all the same.

She jumped a little at the contact and dropped her hands from her eyes as she sat up and looked her in the eye, "you've been avoiding me," Ruth nodded and moved a thumb over the queen's knee.

Regina looked down at the moving touch and frowned at it as she moved her leg away and the woman let her touch slip from her, "and you took it as an invitation to join my company?"

Ruth smiled at the woman's hard and seemingly disgusted voice and when her dark guarded eyes flashed up to meet hers, Ruth merely shrugged a little, "I wanted to say thank you. For saving my life today," she smiled gently and those dark eyes looked her up and down, her jaw set in stone and her pretty lips forming a small scowl. She was an entirely different woman from the one there only moments ago that was crying softly in to her hands because of her unhappiness.

"It was very...out of character for you to do such a thing and I want you to know I am incredibly grateful for what you did for me and for my son," she nodded and refrained from touching her.

Regina didn't want her there, she didn't want her in her company, she was far too honest and open and it unsettled Regina. People lie, people hide, people keep secrets, but Ruth was an open book. "I find it distasteful and annoying when people show endless blabbering gratitude toward me," she bit out and Ruth laughed quietly which threw Regina off a little.

"As do I," she nodded with a light chuckle, "just so long as you know I am grateful and that I will heed anything you ask of me to the best of my ability, I shan't mention the arrow again," she shook her head with a smile and after a moment's pause Regina nodded as well and then looked back out at the forest.

**-three weeks later-**

Henry laughed wildly as he rode Rocinante at a full gallop down the narrow road through the grand forest. His mother was nowhere to be seen but he knew she was close and it was exhilarating. David was right behind him though, his pretty mare's head in line with Rocinante's flank as they galloped fast and hard. He could hear David laughing behind him and urging his mare faster to try and pass him. While Rocinante was smaller, she was impressively quick and her heart was put in to every thundering stride she took which gave her the advantage over David's mount.

The air rushing past him had his eyes watering just a little and he laughed at the freedom the movement lent him. And then seemingly out of nowhere he saw a flash of black out of the corner of his eye and when he looked to it he saw his mother laughing as she raced through the trees along the side of the road just because she could. When she moved him to the road and Rocinante saw him in front of her she opened a whole new gear and pushed herself harder to overrun the dark stallion. It had Henry laughing joyously through his panting breaths and soon enough he was stride in stride with her and her stallion.

And then the finish line was in view. The glistening shore of the lake had him laughing even more and pushing Rocinante to go faster and faster in hopes that her stride could match the huge stallion's. He lost by hardly a nose, the black horse's hooves smacking the water hardly a heartbeat before Rocinante's did the same. "No!" He drew out in defeat as he laughed and both horse's charged deeper in to the lake while their riders slowed them.

Regina laughed in success as she closed her eyes and turned her head to the side to try and avoid the spray of the cool water. When her horse came to a halt he was up to the base of his neck in the water so her feet and part of her legs were submersed as well. Not that she cared in the slightest. "I never lose a race!" She laughed and Henry came up beside her, the water hitting the middle of Rocinante's shoulder and therefore Henry's knees.

"You almost did though!" Henry laughed and pointed at her through his heavy breaths while Rocinante splashed at the water with her lips and head.

"You truly did nearly lose to him," David laughed as his mare waded up to the pair of them.

"A win is a win and a loss is a loss, doesn't matter by how much in the end," she laughed and watched as Henry lifted his legs from the cool water and stood up on Rocinante's back.

"Because I have lost I must surrender my mount to you!"

"You didn't lose, I lost! You came in second place," David laughed and Henry waved him off but it was Regina who replied with a playful smile and a wink.

"You weren't exactly a contender to begin with, Charming," she grinned and he laughed and shook his head.

"She is yours, your majesty," he bowed with his dramatic voice and she and David laughed in thorough amusement.

"She was always mine, you little-no! Henry!" She shrieked and laughed when he leapt and tackled her, knocking her off her stallion's back and in to the water with a great splash and a wild laugh.

David threw his head back with a loud laugh of his own as he clapped his hands together and watched as the pair of them pushed up out of the water again, Regina with a vocal of utter disbelief and horror and Henry with a hysterical laugh while the water licked their shoulders. "You're gonna get it now, kid! There is nowhere you can go to escape the wrath of a sopping wet evil queen," he teased with his unceasing laughter.

"Come here you little hellion!" Regina laughed as she pushed herself forward and Henry thrashed around in the water as he tried to swim away with panicked playful laughter. She dragged him back under the water by his ankles and he was laughing harder than before when he finally managed to squirm free and come up for air.

David watched and laughed as the pair wrestled in the water, the boy bringing out the carefree and playful woman in the stern queen once again. And then they disappeared. The both of them somewhere beneath the surface of the water and he leaned over with a laugh to try and find them, putting the majority of his weight in one stirrup.

"Rah!" Henry shouted as he burst out of the water causing David to yelp and jump away from him only to have Regina pull him down in to the water from the other side which had him shouting in surprise and hitting the water with a loud splash that was combined with Regina and Henry's laughter.

He shot back out of the water with a surprised gasp of air as he tried to gather his thoughts after having them scattered by the chilly water. He looked to Regina who was laughing as free and as happily as he had ever seen. So with a grin and a hunger for a little payback he shot his hand forward and gripped her little waist in his hands causing her to yelp in surprise and try to push him away with her hands on his chest.

"Let go!" She laughed and turned her head away from him as he hands pushed harder against his chest.

He leaned forward with a devious laugh and a playfully menacing grin but found his thoughts quickly slipping from his grasp and running rampant at the sight of drips of clear water making paths down her flawless neck to join the rest of the lake. He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to know if her skin tasted as sweet as he imagined, he wanted to pull that sea coloured riding coat from her slim figure and make her moan his name.

But he didn't.

Instead he didn't miss a beat and picked her up and tossed her backward a little ways and she let out a shriek of laughter before she hit the water and sunk beneath the surface. His thoughts had begun to wander ever since she had saved Ruth and began allowing herself to warm up around him. She smiled more and lost her temper less, she spoke with him now rather than ignoring or snarling at him, she was a new person and each day was getting easier. Easier if he didn't take in to account the fact he was growing a little too fond of her. He found he hardly thought of Snow anymore except for when he felt guilty for fantasizing about Regina.

He wasn't going to lie and say that he didn't often have little fantasies of sleeping with her but that wasn't all he thought about. What he found he really wanted was to just have her near, to have her close to him and in his arms. He wanted to be the one who called her his, the one who loved her as Henry so adamantly demanded she needed to find. He didn't want her with anyone else but him. But that was impossible and was never going to happen.

"Cannonball!" Henry hollered as loud as he could and leapt from Rocinante's back and curled his knees up to his chest before he hit the water with a huge splash that had both Regina and David turning away and shielding their faces with their hands.

...

They sat side by side now in comfortable silence, wrapped in heavy blankets as they watched the fire burn strong in the hearth. The sun had set and the only light now was that of the orange flames cracking and popping the wood. He closed his eyes with a smile and a long silent exhale, opening his eyes only when he heard a soft breathy laughter come from the woman next to him, "what?" He smiled and she shrugged a little and smiled at the fire.

"I had fun today," she replied quietly and hugged her blankets closer around her.

"That boy certainly does know how to have a good time," David chuckled quietly and Regina laughed a little more and nodded, her smile and laughter warming his heart. Henry had left them maybe a half hour earlier to go to bed for he was falling asleep against Regina's side. And now it was just himself and the queen in front of the fire.

"Yes he does," she laughed quietly and kept her eyes on the fire. She couldn't look him in the eye. Not with the burning fire reflecting in those perfect kind eyes of his and further warming that heart stopping smile of his. She was going mad for him and she was having an incredibly difficult time reining herself in. She was a queen who was used to taking what she wanted right when she wanted it. And she couldn't have David.

Well she probably could without much trouble but she wanted it to be...mutual. She wanted him to want her and that was something she hadn't felt in a long time. So she continued to try and get her wandering mind and wishful heart back under control for she knew she would never have him.

"I didn't know you swam," he started with a smile, trying to get her to carry a conversation longer than a few words, "I believed you to be above that."

Regina laughed under her breath with a shake of her head, "are queens not supposed to leave their throne room?"

"Well they certainly don't tend to ride bareback, race through the forest, or jump in lakes fully clothed," he teased with a happy smile and she laughed a little more.

"Can't let my weakness merely be that I can't swim. They'd all take turns trying to drown me if that were true," she smirked and glanced up at him only to let her eyes fall back to the fire.

"That could very well be true," he nodded with a light laugh, "although I do not believe that to be your reason for learning."

"No," she smiled and shook her head, picking at her blanket for a few moments before she decided the tale was harmless enough to tell, "Daniel taught me how. It started as a dare and then turned in to a game and then...well it ended in sex," she shrugged and laughed quietly, cursing the burn that came to her cheeks when David happily laughed with her.

"What was the dare that started it all?" He laughed happily and she transformed in to a bashful young woman right before his eyes when she rolled her smiling lips in to her mouth and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and kept her eyes on the floor in front of her.

"He said that if I truly was the bold woman I claimed to be that I must swim to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a crystal from its bed, because surely a proper lady wouldn't dare," she laughed quietly and then ran her tongue over her teeth beneath her top lip as she smiled, "I quickly accepted only I raised the stakes. As I backed toward the pool I explained that surely a proper lady would not dare ruin her hair and clothes over such a foolish challenge. However if she must do it and must do it in the company of a man that she wouldn't so much as think to do it without her clothes. Especially if said man had to teach her to swim first," she laughed and David laughed with her, just as amused and joyed by the tale as she was, "being young, wet, and that close can only end in one thing."

"Oh it applies at any age," he assured and immediately kicked himself when her dark eyes snapped up to him curiously and he dropped his to the floor. So he changed the topic a little, "I learned on my own in a shallow pond with my father's grey plough horse. I'd ride her out to the water everyday and she'd stand belly deep in the middle of the water and wait and watch me flail around in there until I got it," he laughed with a shake of his head, "I must have been eight or something like that. Not nearly as fun as your lessons I'm sure," he teased and she laughed quietly at the fire.

"I would have given anything for that kind of freedom," Regina admitted with a quiet voice and her thoughts ran elsewhere for a little while.

David watched her quietly as her mind ran. The firelight did wonderful things to her eyes. The flames danced in her dark irises and played in the shine of her dark hair while simultaneously warming the tone of her flawless skin and moving shadows of her features. She once brought him tension and rage but these days occupying the same space as her brought him serenity and a relaxed joy.

When her expression began to fall in to sorrow he reached over the short distance between them and tucked a fallen strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers moving down the contour of her jaw when she snapped back from her thoughts and turned her head to look at him. He tilted his head a little and the side of his finger rested beneath her chin while his thumb moved slowly over her chin and jaw, "you have that freedom now," he nodded with his quiet voice and her eyes fell to the ground once more.

So he increased the pressure ever so slightly beneath her chin and her eyes flicked back up to his, her mouth forming an unreadable frown. "You are free now to do as you wish, Regina. Just be sure that what you wish is worth doing," he nodded with his quiet voice and held her eye with the certainty she didn't have.

That was when she saw it. That was when Ruth saw the most bizarre and yet most human thing from the queen. The woman had found herself hopelessly in love with her son. It had her breath stopping in her lungs and her heart skipping a beat or two. There was no denying it. The queen's shoulders fell and her body moved forward ever so slightly of its own accord while her head remained in place. As though her heart said 'go' and her mind said 'no'. And then the way her lips parted for the desire to speak as her eyes fell down and she leaned in to David's touch.

It all happened at once and every movement was smooth and subtle but Ruth caught it all the same and it had her jaw slacking in shock just enough for her lips to part. She had caught the end of their conversation and during their pause while the queen fell in to her thoughts, she was going to make her presence known. But when David reached to pull her from her thoughts it had Ruth pausing so as not to interrupt. And now she was stunned in place.

It wasn't something she had ever thought on. Even after living in the woman's presence for weeks. Yes David was kind to her, yes he treated her with a gentle hand, yes he was capable of making her laugh, but she never imagined that the woman would in turn find herself wishing to give her heart to him. She hadn't even thought the woman capable of such a tender and secret love. It caught her completely off guard and she didn't know how to process it. It seemed David hadn't even noticed the way the queen reacted to his touch and if he had he certainly didn't show it.

"Am I...interrupting something?" Ruth smiled as she approached them with her hands clasped in front of her. She had asked David but her eyes soon moved to Regina to see her reaction regarding David's answer.

"No," he smiled and withdrew his hand from Regina, "nothing at all."

Even though she knew they shouldn't, Regina felt those words stab through her heart like a cold knife. Of course Ruth wasn't interrupting anything, she _wasn't_ anything. They were just talking, he hadn't meant anything, he hadn't felt anything. She was still _nothing_.

Ruth felt a little jab off sorrow for Regina when she turned her head away from them both and back to the fire with the saddest smile and silent laugh to herself. As if she were laughing at herself for believing even for a moment that she could be cared for. David looked to her when she moved but he quickly dismissed her turn away for simply not wishing to interact with Ruth. He had missed that heartbreaking smile.

"Did you need something, mother?"

"No, no I was just up and about and wondering if you had gone off to bed."

"No not yet," he smiled with a shake of his head and then looked back to Regina but she made a point not to look at him, "I think I'll start heading over though. It is getting rather late," he spoke to Ruth but his eyes were curiously on Regina who still made a point not to look at him but she did not her head in acknowledgement. "Regina," he started softly but when he reached forward to turn her chin to him, she flinched at the contact and was on her feet before he could say another word.

"I suppose I will retire as well then," she spoke smoothly but her voice was empty of any feeling as she hung her blanket over the nearest chair and began heading for the door, welcoming the chill the cool air gave her skin. "I will see you both tomorrow," she nodded and avoided looking in David's direction but couldn't help but meet Ruth's eye for she was standing right in her way. She didn't like what she saw either when she did look at her.

Her kind eyes were filled with shock and understanding and a special twinge of sorrow that had Regina swallowing in a sudden rush of panic. Ruth knew what she was struggling with regarding David and it scared the hell out of her. She opened her mouth to say something but was at a loss for words as she looked back and forth between eyes that were just as dark as her own. When she heard David stand up she quickly dropped her eyes and pushed a hand through her hair as she sidestepped Ruth and tried not to sprint from the room.

"Regina!" David called after her and tried to run to her but was stopped by a hand on his chest.

"Just leave her be, son," Ruth shook her head with a put on smile to mask her jumbled thoughts over what she had seen from the queen, "she's enough of a basket case as it is, she doesn't need any more-"

"What the hell did I even do?" He pushed a hand out in the direction Regina had disappeared in and looked over Ruth's shoulder to the door.

Ruth smiled a false smile again and shook her head as she placed both hands on his chest and gave him a light pat, "just trust me when I say that she needs a moment to herself. If you follow her now the pair of you are going to get thrown in to something _neither_ of you are ready for."

"...what do you mean?"

"David _please_," she laughed shakily, her composure starting to slip in to her own hysteria over what was happening. How was she supposed to react to the Evil Queen falling in love with her dear son, "just let her go tonight."

David nodded slowly, his brow furrowed in confusion as to what had shaken his unwavering mother, "alright...I'll leave her be..."

"Good," she nodded and patted his chest once more, "good."


End file.
